What are the customs of Laba Festival 1, Laba Tofu Laba Tofu is a folk specialty in Ganxian County, Anhui Province. On the eve of the Spring Festival, Laba, that is, around the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household in Ganxian county will sun tofu, which is called Laba tofu by the people.
Laba porridge
2. Cooking five beans Some places have laba porridge, which is not called "laba porridge" but called "five beans". Some are done on the day of Laba, and some are done on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month. You have to put some "sparrow heads" in noodles and cook them with rice and beans (five kinds of beans). It is said that Laba people eat "sparrow's head", and sparrows have a headache, which will not harm crops in the coming year. This kind of boiled "five beans" is not only for eating, but also for relatives and neighbors. When you eat it every day, heat it and eat it together until the 23 rd of the twelfth lunar month, which symbolizes more than a year.
3. Soaking Laba garlic with Laba garlic is a custom in northern China, especially in northern China. As the name implies, garlic is brewed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In fact, the materials are very simple, namely vinegar and garlic cloves. The method is also extremely simple. Put the peeled garlic cloves in a sealable container, such as a jar or bottle, then pour in vinegar, seal the mouth and put it in a cold place. Slowly, the garlic soaked in vinegar will turn green, and finally the whole body will turn green, like jade and jasper.
4. Laba noodles In some places in northern China that produce little or no rice, people eat Laba noodles instead of Laba porridge. The next day, on the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family will eat Laba noodles.
5. Laba porridge China has a history of drinking Laba porridge for more than 1000 years. It first started in the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, whether it is the imperial court, the government, temples, or the people's homes, Laba porridge will be cooked. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became more popular. At court, emperors, queens and princes give laba porridge to civil and military ministers and attendants, and distribute rice and fruit to monasteries for monks to eat. In the folk, every household should also make Laba porridge to worship their ancestors. At the same time, family members get together for dinner and give gifts to relatives and friends.
There are many kinds of Laba porridge in China. Among them, Beiping is the most exquisite, and there are many items mixed in white rice, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, hazelnuts, grapes, ginkgo, water chestnut, moss, roses, red beans and peanuts. , a total of not less than twenty kinds. On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruits, peeling, removing stones and picking carefully, then cooking in the middle of the night and stewing with low fire until Laba porridge was cooked the next morning.
More sophisticated people should first carve fruits into human shapes, animals and patterns, and then cook them in a pot. More distinctive is to put "fruit lion" in Laba porridge. Fruit lion is a lion made of several kinds of fruits, with peeled and dried crisp dates as the lion's body, half walnut kernel as the lion's head, peach kernel as the lion's foot and sweet almond as the lion's tail. Then stick them together with sugar and put them in a porridge bowl, just like a little lion. If the bowl is bigger, you can put two lions or four little lions on it. More exquisite, it is made of jujube paste, red bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake and other foods in various colors, and kneaded into statues of the Eight Immortals, the birthday girl, Luohan and so on. This decorative Laba porridge can only be seen on the altar of a big temple in the past.
After laba porridge is cooked, you should sacrifice to God and ancestors first. After that, give it to relatives and friends, and be sure to send it out before noon. Finally, the whole family eats together. It is a good sign that the leftover Laba porridge will be preserved after eating for a few days, which means "more than one year". If you give porridge to the poor, it will be better for you.
What are the taboos of Laba Festival? 1, Laba Festival taboo. Don't go back to your mother's house on Laba Festival. As the old saying goes, there are always a few days in a year when a married daughter can't go back to her family. This is taboo and special. Starting from the twelfth lunar month, the first taboo day is Laba. It will be unlucky for her mother-in-law to go back to her mother's house on Laba Festival, and her mother-in-law will die in her stomach a hundred years later. Another way of saying it: "Laba doesn't eat her mother's food, and her ancestors can't afford it", which means she will be poor. Some people even think that you can't spend the eighth, eighteenth and twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month at your mother's house.
The taboo of Laba Festival is not to move in the twelfth month. From the perspective of geomantic omen, it is cold in December. If you rush into a new house, the cold atmosphere will block the bustling atmosphere at home. This sounds natural and scientific. However, with the improvement of home technology, many houses have implemented whole-house heating, and it is not necessary to invite some friends to sit in the new house as in the past, which is popular. The reason why there is a saying that "you can't move in the twelfth lunar month" is nothing more than fear that people's hands and feet are cold and bad for your health. Now, for people who have heating at home, this is no longer a problem.
3. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the anniversary of Laba Festival, which is called Laba in folk customs. Since then, the "taste of the year" has become increasingly rich. The custom of eating Laba porridge in Laba has a history of thousands of years in China, and it has different origins.
Some places also have the habit of eating Laba porridge, but eating Laba porridge at noon is not enough. Every year, people start cooking Laba porridge the night before and eat it the next morning. If they can't finish eating, they can share it with their friends and relatives, but not after noon. There is a saying that "eat porridge early and harvest food early next year".
People with indigestion can consider putting less soybeans and black beans in Laba porridge because they are really difficult to digest. You can put some warm glutinous rice and more brown rice to nourish your stomach. Starch beans and health food should be fully soaked before cooking, which will be softer and easier to digest after cooking. Laba porridge for diabetics is the opposite. Don't add glutinous rice and white rice, let alone sugar. Oats and barley should be used to increase the viscosity, and at the same time, more than half of beans should be put to help control the rising speed of blood sugar.
Laba porridge for dieters focuses on chewing taste and satiety, and it is also necessary to add less glutinous rice and white rice, which is too easy to digest and does not add sugar. Add more starch beans with thicker skins, such as various kidney beans and red beans, to make the texture of porridge soft but not rotten. As for children's laba porridge, we might as well add some chopped nuts and dried fruits to add a sweetness and help them eat this healthy food happily.
The origin of Laba Festival is in ancient times. Sacrificing to "gods" in December is called the twelfth lunar month, so the twelfth lunar month is called the twelfth lunar month.
According to historical records, Laba is a festival of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. According to the Book of Rites, the son of heaven has eight wax gods, who began to practice La Worship from Yi Jia. The original intention of the wax figure is to demand that at the end of the year, all kinds of objects should be collected to sacrifice to the wax figure god. La Worship's main goal is to offer sacrifices to the first grain grower, the god of grain and the grain manager in return for their shelter and harvest.
Laba Festival, also known as Laba Festival, Wanghoula Festival or Foguang Festival, is an ancient ritual ceremony to celebrate the harvest and thank ancestors and gods. In addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors and worshipping God, people also have to drive away epidemics. This activity originated from Nuo in ancient times (the ritual of exorcising ghosts and avoiding epidemics in ancient times). One of the prehistoric medical methods was to exorcise ghosts and treat diseases. As a witchcraft activity, Xinhua and other places in Hunan still retain the custom of beating drums to drive away epidemics in the twelfth lunar month. Later it evolved into a religious festival to commemorate the enlightenment of Buddha Sakyamuni. The Xia dynasty called Lari "Jiaping", the Shang dynasty called it "moss" and the Zhou dynasty called it "big wax". Because it is held in December, it is called the twelfth lunar month, and La Worship is called the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month in the pre-Qin period was the third day after the establishment of the winter solstice, and it was fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.