What is Laba porridge？ The origin, origin and legend of Laba porridge
Laba porridge (porridge cooked with various ingredients in Laba Festival)
Laba porridge is a kind of porridge cooked with a variety of ingredients on Laba Festival, also known as Qibao Wuwei porridge. Eating Laba porridge to celebrate the harvest has been passed down to this day.
In ancient times, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the custom of eating "Laba porridge" ("laba rice" in some places) spread among the people in China. In Henan, Laba porridge, also known as "everyone’s meal", is a festival food custom to commemorate the national hero Yue Fei.
"Laba porridge at the age of Yanjing": "Laba porridge is cooked with yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut rice, chestnuts, red Jiang Dou, peeled jujube paste, etc., and dyed with red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, white sugar, brown sugar and miscellaneous grapes for topical use." . Laba porridge, like laba rice, is the remains of ancient wax sacrifice.
"Sacrifice to the Suburb Special Sacrifice" says that the wax sacrifice is "December of the year, which brings together all things and seeks for food". Laba porridge is cooked in a pot with rice, which means bringing together all things and reconciling thousands of spirits.
Chinese name Labazhou
The main ingredients are whole grains.
Classification of traditional festival food outlets
Sweet and soft, offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods.
Introduction of dishes
introduce
In ancient China, the Emperor of Heaven, in December of the lunar calendar, used dry things to make a La Worship to worship the gods. La Worship includes two aspects: one is sacrifice; The second is prayer. Sacrifice is to worship the eight-valley star god, offering it with dry things to express the meaning of Qingfeng harvest. Dry matter is called wax, and eight is the god of eight grains and stars, so it is called Laba. In terms of time, La Worship is held on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year in the lunar calendar. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is also called Laba. Prayer is an important aspect of La Worship, which is to pray for good weather in the coming year and ensure a bumper agricultural harvest. Every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, dry things are sacrificed to the eight-valley star god, and prayers are made, which are called Laba wishes or wax eight wishes, and they are homophonic with porridge. So on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, dried fruits and vegetables are mixed together, cooked into porridge, and offered to the agricultural god to express the meaning of harvest in Qingfeng, and prayed. Laba porridge is used to homophone the meaning of Laba Zhu, which is the origin of Laba porridge. It means cooking porridge with dry things, offering sacrifices to the god of agriculture, praying and praying for blessing to celebrate the harvest.
In Henan, Laba porridge, also known as "everyone’s meal", is a festival food custom to commemorate the national hero Yue Fei. It is said that Yue Jiajun’s crusade against Jin Lu was successively won in Zhuxian Town, but it was chased back by the court’s twelve gold medals. On the way back to Li, the soldiers were hungry and hungry, and the Henan people along the way poured the food sent by each family into the cauldron and boiled it into porridge for the soldiers to satisfy their hunger and keep out the cold. This day happened to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Later, Yue Fei was killed in Fengbo Pavilion. In order to miss this national hero, every family in Henan eats "everyone’s meal" on the day of Laba to show their nostalgia. Another way of saying it is that Laba porridge was originally cooked by Buddhist temples for bodhisattvas — — Eighteen kinds of dried fruits symbolize eighteen arhats. Later, this custom became popular among the people in Buddhism. The story of Laba porridge came from the story of a cow herding woman supporting chyle. Later, China’s Buddhist disciples took effect. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year, they cooked porridge with grains and fruits for the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge" or "Qibao Wuwei porridge". Up to now, this custom has gradually spread to the people, and most people have to cook Laba porridge on this day, which has become one of the folk customs.
On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruits, plucking skin, removing stones and picking them carefully, then cooking them in the middle of the night and stewing them with low fire until the next morning, when Laba porridge was cooked.
After laba porridge is cooked, you should first offer it to the Buddha and the monk. After that, if you want to give it to your relatives and friends, you must send it out before noon. If you give the porridge to the poor, it will be good for yourself. Finally, it is eaten by the whole family. Leftover Laba porridge, which is preserved after eating for several days, is considered as a good omen, taking its meaning of "more than one year".
foodstuff
The ingredients of Laba porridge vary from place to place. On the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, eight things are mixed and cooked. Among them, rice, carrots and vegetables are indispensable three treasures. In addition, there are peanuts (or soybeans), lotus seeds, ginkgo, tofu or oily tofu, taro and other ingredients. If you want to add more ingredients, you can put Sichuan fungus, red dates and vegetarian bean cakes, but you can’t put vegetarian ham and mushrooms.
The proportion of ingredients in Laba porridge is usually as follows: 40% of Penglai rice, 20% of glutinous rice, 10% of green vegetables, 5% of carrots, peanuts (soybeans), 5% of tofu (oily tofu) and fried dough sticks, 5% of ginkgo, lotus seeds and taro, and the other 10% is not necessary to measure the situation. The so-called "five flavors are harmonious and a hundred flavors are fragrant." Before cooking porridge, you should heat the oil, then fry the rice, then put the fried rice in a hot water pot to cook, and then put the peanuts and other materials in. The whole pot of Laba porridge has Huang Liang’s fried dough sticks, white tofu, red carrots, black Laba porridge, black fungus and blue Qingjiang cuisine, with bright colors.
There are a few things to deal with before cooking porridge. First, peanuts, soak in water the night before. Second, emperor beans are not easy to boil, so they can be fried before cooking, or broken with a blender, and then fried in oil, and will soon be cooked. Third, lotus seeds and ginkgo should be boiled. Fourth, the taro should be fried. Fifth, as long as the leaves are put on the vegetables, not the stems, and not too much. And the fritters should not be too broken. The porridge should not be too thick, and there should be a little thin porridge juice. Before taking out the pot, turn off the fire for two to three minutes to suffocate, then turn on a small fire and roll it, so that all the ingredients can be blended and cooked again. Pepper can be added to enhance the taste.
The significance of eating Laba porridge is not only to commemorate the enlightenment of the Buddha who saw the stars at night, but also to be warm, complete, harmonious, auspicious, healthy, cooperative, nutritious, indifferent, convenient, grateful, happy (replacing tea with porridge) and attached to each other. Tianjin folk custom On the night before Laba, a good man believed that a woman twisted beans to make porridge. Every time she twisted a bean, she called it an affinity bean. Therefore, write a poem: "Happy to the twelfth lunar month of the eighth lunar month, the custom of giving up beans in front of the door follows, and the disciples of believers cook porridge at night, and they are good at chanting Buddhism and forming good relationships." The ingredients of Laba porridge now depend on personal taste, such as rice, peanuts, mung beans, red beans and lotus seeds. Other auxiliary materials include lentils, red dates, longan, yam, lily, medlar, coix seed, millet and other beans. This porridge can be sweetened into dessert or salted.
It is recorded that in ancient China, the emperors of heaven and country used dry things to make La Worship in December of the lunar calendar to offer sacrifices to the gods. Wax sacrifice was later popular among the people, and its custom still remains, that is, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in the south want to eat laba rice, while people in the north want to drink Laba porridge. Since the pre-Qin period, Laba Festival has been used to worship ancestors and gods and pray for good harvest and good luck. The custom of drinking Laba porridge in China was very popular in the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, whether it’s the imperial court, the government, the temple or the people’s house of Limin, Laba porridge will be cooked. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became more prosperous. At court, emperors, queens and princes all give laba porridge to ministers of civil and military affairs and attendants, and distribute rice and fruits 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 groups get together to eat and give gifts to relatives and friends. The twelfth lunar month festival, the twelfth lunar month, is commonly called "twelfth lunar month". It is said that after Qin Shihuang unified China, he ordered that December be renamed as "twelfth month" every year. The word "La" didn’t appear until the Han Dynasty.
The history of drinking Laba porridge in China has been recorded in writing for more than 1000 years. It started in the Song Dynasty at the latest. On the day of Laba, whether it’s the imperial court, the government, the temple or the people’s house of Limin, Laba porridge will be cooked. In the Ming Dynasty, rice, ginkgo, walnut kernel and chestnuts were added to cook porridge. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge was even more popular. At court, emperors, queens and princes all give laba porridge to ministers of civil and military affairs and attendants, and distribute rice and fruits 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 groups get together to eat and give gifts to relatives and friends. The famous Lama Temple Laba porridge, in addition to grains such as glutinous rice and millet, also contains diced mutton and cream. The porridge noodles are sprinkled with red dates, longan, walnuts, raisins, melon seeds and green shredded pork.
The reason why December of the lunar calendar is called "twelfth lunar month";"Sacrifice" explained above: "The wax man, Suoye, is in December, gathering all things and seeking for food." "Wax" is similar to "wax". Sacrifice to ancestors is called "wax" and sacrifice to gods is called "wax". "Wax" and "wax" are both sacrificial activities, and most of them are held in December of the lunar calendar, so people call December the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month is the end of the year, and people in ancient times had nothing to do, so they went out hunting. One is to get more food to make up for the shortage of food, and the other is to worship ancestors and gods with wild animals, pray for longevity and avoid disasters.
There are many folk customs in the twelfth lunar month. On the eighth day of December, "Laba porridge" was made of miscellaneous grains. Some farmers even throw Laba porridge on doors, fences and woodpiles to offer sacrifices to the god of grains. On December 23rd, commonly known as "off-year", people in some areas display incense wax knives and candied fruits as offerings to "Kitchen God". In fact, most people nowadays don’t believe in "gods" and so on. This is to follow some ancient customs, and now there is the custom of competing for offerings from old people. As early as the Song Dynasty, on the eighth day of December, seven treasures and five flavors of porridge, namely "Laba porridge", were sent to major monasteries in Kaifeng, Tokyo. In the Song Dynasty, Meng Yuan-shen recorded in Dream of China in Tokyo that on the eighth day of December, "the temples held a Buddhist bath, and sent seven treasures and five flavors porridge to his disciples, which was called" Laba porridge ". Everyone is a Japanese family and eats porridge with fruit miscellaneous materials. " Also known as "Buddha porridge". Lu You, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, said in his poem: "At present, Buddha porridge is more mutually reinforcing, and it is thought that Jiangcun saves new things." It’s also about Laba sending porridge.
Laba porridge is not only enjoyed by monks, but also popular among the people. Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties followed this food custom, which was the most popular in Qing dynasty. There is a poem saying, "Every family cooks a double bow in Laba, and hazelnuts and peach kernels are dyed red. I like jiao’ er to look at it, and the Buddha’ s shadow is endless. " Zhou Mi’s Old Wulin Story says: "On the eighth day, temples and people use walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmons and chestnuts as porridge, which is called ‘ Laba porridge ’ 。” The Qing Dynasty Fucha Dunchong said in the book "Laba Porridge at the Age of Yanjing": "Laba porridge is cooked with yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut, red beans, peeled jujube paste, etc., and externally dyed peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, white sugar, brown sugar and trivial. , quite characteristic of Beijing. Guo Sun, a native of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a story about a visit to Yan Dou: "On December 8th, Baiguan porridge was given, which was mixed with rice and fruit. Those who have more goods win, and this story follows the story of the Song Dynasty. " As a folk custom, Laba porridge is eaten on December 8 in the summer calendar to celebrate the harvest, which has been passed down to this day. In addition to the activities of worshipping ancestors and worshipping gods, people also have to chase the epidemic on Laba Festival. This activity originated from the ancient Nuo (ancient ritual of exorcising ghosts and avoiding epidemics) — — One of the medical methods in prehistoric times was to exorcise ghosts and cure diseases. As a witchcraft activity, the custom of beating drums to drive away epidemics in the twelfth lunar month still exists in Xinhua and other areas in Hunan Province.
"Sakyamuni Enlightenment Day" is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples all over the country held Buddhist bathing meetings and chanted scriptures, and followed the legend of a herdess offering chyle before Sakyamuni became a Taoist, cooking porridge with fragrant valleys and fruits for the Buddha, and giving Laba porridge to disciples and good men and women. It is said that in some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held alms bowls along the street and cooked the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributed it to the poor. Legend has it that you can get the blessing of Buddha after eating it, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge" Lu You’s poem in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and it is opposite that Jiangcun saves new things." It is said that there is a "rice stack building" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, monks in the temple dry the leftovers every day, accumulate a year’s surplus food, and cook them into Laba porridge for believers on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fude porridge", which means that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating them. It can be seen that monks at that time cherished the virtue of food.
In the Song Dynasty, Wu Zimu wrote "Dream of Liang Lu" for six years: "On the eighth day, the temple called it ‘ Laba ’ . Dasha Temple and other places have five-flavor porridge, which is called ‘ Laba porridge ’ 。” At this time, Laba porridge has long been a folk custom, but at that time, the emperor also used it to win over all the ministers. "Yongle Dadian" records that "it is the eighth day of the month, and the Zen family calls it the Laba Day, cooking bad porridge for the Buddha to eat." In the Qing Dynasty, in the third year of Yongzheng (A.D. 1725), Sejong changed the residence east of imperial academy in Beijing’s Andingmen to the Lama Temple. On the eighth day of Laba, in the Wanfuge and other places in the palace, Laba porridge was cooked in a pot and monks were invited to chant Buddhist scriptures, and then the porridge was distributed to the palace ministers to taste and eat for the festival. "The Records of Shuntian Mansion in Guangxu" goes: "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yonghe officials cook porridge, customize it, send ministers to monitor it, and cover it for dinner."
Legend has it that everyone may not be unfamiliar with Laba Festival, and only a handful of people know about it.
Legend 1: From the custom of "playing ghost with red beans"
Legend has it that Zhuan Xu, one of the five emperors in ancient times, turned three sons into evil spirits after their death, and came out to frighten children. In ancient times, people generally believed in superstition and were afraid of ghosts and gods. Adults thought that children’s stroke and ill health were caused by plague ghosts on Laba Festival. These evil spirits are fearless, only afraid of red (red) beans, so there is a saying that "red beans play ghosts." Therefore, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, red adzuki beans and red adzuki beans are used to cook porridge to dispel the epidemic and welcome the auspicious.
Legend 2: In memory of the migrant workers who starved to death at the Great Wall site,
Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, and all the migrant workers were ordered to come. They could not go home for many years, and they relied on their families to send them food. Some migrant workers, whose homes are separated by thousands of waters in Qian Shan, can’t deliver food, which causes many migrant workers to starve to death at the Great Wall site. One year, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, migrant workers who had no food accumulated a few handfuls of coarse grains in partnership, boiled them into gruel in a pot, each drank a bowl, and finally starved to death under the Great Wall. In order to mourn the migrant workers who starved to death at the Great Wall construction site, people eat "Laba porridge" every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month as a souvenir.
Legend 3: From India
Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was originally the son of King Sudoku in the northern part of ancient India (present-day Nepal). He saw that all beings were suffering from physical and mental illness, and he was dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of Brahmins at that time, giving up the throne and becoming a monk. After six years of asceticism, he became a Buddha under the bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During these six years of asceticism, I only ate one hemp and one meter a day. Later generations did not forget his sufferings and ate porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year as a souvenir. "Laba" became the "Buddha’s Inauguration Day".
"Laba" is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples all over the country held Buddhist bathing meetings and chanted scriptures, and imitated the legend of a herdess offering chyle before Sakyamuni became a Taoist, and cooked porridge with fragrant valleys and fruits to offer to the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge was presented to disciples and good men and women, and it became a custom among the people in the future. It is said that in some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held alms bowls along the street and cooked the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributed it to the poor.
Legend has it that you can get the blessing of Buddha after eating it, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge" Lu You’s poem in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and it is opposite that Jiangcun saves new things." It is said that there is a "rice-stacking building" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, monks in the temple dry the leftovers every day, accumulate a year’s surplus food, and cook them into Laba porridge for believers on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fude porridge", meaning that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating them. It can be seen that monks at that time cherished the virtue of food.
Legend 4: Educate the younger generation to be thrifty and housekeeping (1)
In the early years, there was such a family of four, an old couple and two sons. The old couple are very diligent, doing farm work all the year round. Plough in spring, hoe in summer and harvest in autumn, and work hard for the day. All kinds of food stored at home are big and small. There is also a big jujube tree in their yard. The old couple carefully cultivated the jujube, which was crisp and sweet. When they collected it and sold it, they could sell a lot of money, and they lived a very rich life. The old couple rushed to their lives in order to marry their two sons.
Seeing that his son is getting old enough to marry his wife day by day, the old couple are all too old. When his father died, he told his brothers to plant crops well. When the old mother died, she told her brothers to take good care of the jujube trees in the courtyard and save money for a wife.
A family of four is now left with only two brothers to live. My brother saw this large hoard of grain and said to his younger brother, "We have so much grain, that’s enough. Let’s take a year off this year!" "
The younger brother said, "This jujube tree is not tight this year. Anyway, we don’t lack dates to eat." In this way, the two brothers are getting lazy and greedy. Just knowing that you eat, drink, and be merry year after year, you eat up all the food in a few years. The jujube trees in the courtyard are getting worse and worse every year.
This year is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and there is really nothing to eat at home. What should I do? My brother found a small broom, and my brother brought a small dustpan, the raw material of Laba porridge, and swept it in the gap between the big store bottom and the small store where the grain was previously stored. He swept a handful of yellow rice grains from here and found a handful of red beans from there. In this way, the number of miscellaneous grains and grains was small, but there were many samples. Finally, he found a few dried red dates and put them in the pot to cook together. After cooking, the two brothers began to eat the porridge made up of whole grains, and their eyes looked at each other, only to remember what their parents said before they died, and they regretted it very much.
The two brothers suffered from laziness, and after losing their children, they all worked hard the next year. Like their parents, they lived a good life again in a few years, married a daughter-in-law and had children. In order to learn the lesson of laziness, people should never forget to live diligently and frugally. Since then, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people have eaten porridge cooked with whole grains. Because this day is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people call it "Laba porridge."
Legend 5: Educate the younger generation to be thrifty and housekeeping.（2）
In the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a very lazy young man, who was always idle and idle, but his new wife repeatedly advised him to fail. However, on the eighth day of December at the end of the year, the family stopped cooking, and the young man was hungry. He searched rice jars, flour bags and pots and pans at home, washed the leftover powder and edible scraps into the pot and cooked a bowl of mushy porridge to drink. From then on, he thought hard and regretted it. Local people take this opportunity to educate their children to cook porridge and drink it every Laba, which not only shows that they will not forget the virtues of their ancestors’ diligence and thrift on the day of Laba, but also hopes that the gods will bring a good year of ample food and clothing.
Legend 6: Out of people’s nostalgia for Yue Fei, a loyal minister.
At that time, Yue Fei led his troops to fight against gold in Zhuxian Town, which was in the severe winter of September. Yue Jiajun was poor in food and clothing, hungry and cold, and all the people sent porridge one after another. Yue Jiajun had a full meal of "everyone’s meal" sent by the people, and the result was a great victory. It was the eighth day of December. After Yue Fei’s death, in order to commemorate him, people cooked porridge with miscellaneous grains and beans on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which finally became a custom.
Legend 7: Laba porridge saved Zhu Yuanzhang’s life.
It is said that when Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, his family was very poor, so he herded cattle for a rich man. One day, when I came back from herding cattle, I crossed a wooden bridge. The cow slipped and fell off the bridge and broke its leg. The old rich man was angry and put him in a house without food. Zhu Yuanzhang was so hungry that he suddenly found a rat hole in the house. When he opened it, it turned out to be a granary for rats, which contained rice, beans and red dates. He put these things together and cooked a pot of porridge, which tasted very sweet and delicious. Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he remembered it again and asked the chef to cook a pot of porridge mixed with all kinds of grain and beans. It happened to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so it was called Laba porridge.
custom
Laba porridge in Beijing can be said to be the most exquisite. There are many things mixed in white rice, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, grapes, ginkgo, moss, roses, red beans and peanuts … … No fewer than 20 kinds. People began to wash rice, soak fruit, peel and core on the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, and began to stew with low fire at midnight. Laba porridge was not cooked until the next morning.
Laba Festival in the northern Shaanxi Plateau, porridge is cooked with a variety of dried fruits, tofu and meat in addition to rice and beans. After eating, you should also put porridge on the door, the stove and the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome the bumper agricultural harvest in the coming year. Moreover, Laba is forbidden to eat vegetables on this day. If you eat vegetables on this day, there will be more weeds in the crops. On Laba Day, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship ancestors and granaries with porridge.
In some places in Shaanxi that produce little or no rice, people eat laba noodles instead of laba porridge. Make minced meat with all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and roll out the noodles. On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family eats together.
Traditional cooking of Laba porridge in Gansu uses grains and vegetables, which are not only eaten by family members, but also distributed to neighbors and used to feed livestock. Wuwei, Gansu pays attention to "Su Laba", eating rice thick rice, lentil rice or thick rice, and eating it with fried seeds and twist after cooking. Folklore calls it "bean porridge soaked".
When making laba rice in Ningxia, we usually use all kinds of beans to add rice and potatoes to cook porridge, plus "wheat ears" cut into rhombic willow leaves with wheat flour or buckwheat flour, or "sparrow heads" made into small round eggs, and then add chopped green onion oil before cooking. Like northern Shaanxi, the whole family only ate laba rice, not vegetables. Xining Laba Festival does not drink porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. On the seventh night of the twelfth lunar month, the freshly ground wheat kernels are cooked with beef and mutton, with green salt, ginger skin, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments. After a night of slow fire, the wheat kernel rice is very fragrant and delicious. People in Jiangsu eat Laba porridge in sweet and salty ways. Laba porridge should be added with Chinese wolfberry, water chestnut, walnut kernel, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes and so on. If salty porridge is cooked, just add vegetables and oil to it.
Zhejiang people usually cook Laba porridge with walnut kernel, pine nuts, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat, lychee meat, etc., which is sweet and delicious. It is said that this porridge cooking method has been passed down from Nanjing. The day before Laba, people usually use steel pots to scoop water to freeze. Wait until Laba Festival to break the ice and eat it. There is a folk saying that if you eat ice on Laba Festival, you won’t have a stomachache for the next year.
Explanation of A Dream of Red Mansions
Baoyu was afraid that she would fall ill in sleep, so he coaxed her, "Oh! There is a big story in your Yangzhou yamen, do you know? " Dai-yu saw that what he said was solemn and solemn, and took it as true, so she asked, "What is it?" When Baoyu asked, he said with a smile, "There is a Daishan Mountain in Yangzhou, and there is a forest cave on it." Daiyu said with a smile, "That’s a lie. Jiraiya didn’t hear about this mountain." Baoyu said, "There are many mountains and rivers in the world. How can you know that?". When I’m finished, you can criticize. " "Tell me," said Daiyu. Baoyu added, "There used to be a group of rat spirits in the cave in the Woods. The seventh day of the twelfth lunar month that year. The old mouse rose to the throne for discussion. Cause: ‘ Tomorrow is Laba, and everyone in the world cooks Laba porridge. Now we are short of fruit in the cave, so we must take this opportunity to rob some. ’ But he pulled out an arrow and sent a capable little consumer to inquire. Short-term returns: ‘ I have visited and inquired everywhere, but there is the most fruit and rice in the temple below the mountain. ’ Lao Hao asked: ‘ How many kinds of rice do you have How many products are there? ’ Small consumption: ‘ Mi Dou into a warehouse, invincible. There are five kinds of fruits: one red date, two chestnuts, three peanuts, four water chestnuts and five taro. ’ Old consumption listened to the big joy and immediately went to the point.Is to pull the arrow and ask: ‘ Who will steal rice? ’ I was ordered to steal rice as soon as I spent it. Pull out the arrow again and ask: ‘ Who will steal the beans? ’ Another order to steal beans. Then they all got their orders one by one. There was only one kind of taro left, so he pulled out the arrow and asked: ‘ Who is going to steal taro? ’ I saw a tiny, weak little consumption response: ‘ I would like to steal taro. ’ Seeing him like this, the old and the public are afraid of being inexperienced and timid, and they are not allowed to go. Small consumption: ‘ Although I am young and weak, I have boundless magic, clever tongue and far-reaching stratagem. It’s a coincidence that they stole it. ’ Many consumers are busy asking: ‘ How to be smarter than them? ’ Small consumption: ‘ I didn’t steal like them. I just turned into a taro and rolled it in the pile of taro, making people invisible and inaudible, but I secretly carried it in two places, and gradually it was all gone. Wouldn’t it be more clever than stealing and taking hard? ’ Hearing this, all the consumers said, ‘ Wonderful but wonderful, but I don’t know how to change it. Let’s see if you change it first. ’ Small consumption listened to, say with smile: ‘ This is not difficult, wait for me to change. ’ Say it, turn around and say ‘ Change’ ’ , unexpectedly changed into one of the most beautiful young lady. All the consumers laughed and said, ‘ Wrong, wrong. Originally said to change fruit, how to change into a lady?’ Xiao Yan smiled: ‘ I said that you didn’t see the world. You only knew that this fruit was taro, but you didn’t know that Master Yan Kelin’s young lady was the real fragrant jade. ’ Hearing this, Daiyu rolled over and got up, pressing Baoyu with a smile: "I broke your mouth! I knew you were making me up. " As he spoke, Baoyu, who was twisting, repeatedly pleaded with him, saying, "Dear sister, give me a break. Don’t dare again! I suddenly remembered this allusion because I smelled your fragrance. " Daiyu said with a smile, "I’ve scolded people, and I still call it an allusion."
-Back to the 19th time, I was eager for a good night, and the words were full of meaning, and the Buddhist saying of quiet days, jade and fragrance was born.
Eating Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a custom formed by Buddhists in China to commemorate the enlightenment of Sakyamuni Buddha. Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, whose real name is Gautama Siddharta, is the son of King Sufan in Kapilawei (now Nepal) in northern India. When he was young, he saw all beings suffering from physical illness and death. In order to seek the true meaning of life and the liberation of life and death, he abandoned the royal life and became a monk. He spent six years in the snow-capped mountains, often eclipsing one wheat and one hemp. Later, I found that asceticism was not the way out, so I gave up asceticism and went down the mountain. At this time, a shepherdess saw that he was weak, so she cooked chyle (milk and grain cooked together) to support him. Sakyamuni’s physical strength recovered from this, and then he stayed under the bodhi tree for seven days. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he saw the stars at night and became a Buddha.
Accordingly, Buddhist temples in Han Dynasty are commemorated every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
On this day, various monasteries held dharma meetings, imitating the story of a herdess offering chyle before the Buddha became a Taoist, and cooking porridge with fragrant grains and fruits for the Buddha, named Laba porridge.
Some monasteries held bowls by monks before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and almed along the street to cook the collected rice, chestnuts, dates and nuts into Laba porridge and distribute it to the poor. Everyone thinks that eating it can be blessed by the Buddha, so poor people call it "Buddha porridge"
Generally speaking, the Buddhist porridge in the temple is delicious and abundant to meet the needs of good men and women who come to the temple to attend the memorial ceremony. Some believers came specially for "porridge", thinking that Laba’s porridge for the Buddha was auspicious, not only for their own consumption, but also for their families to enjoy.
Year after year, the tradition of making Laba porridge in temples has spread widely to the people. From this, the "Laba Festival" was born.
Lu You’s poem in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and it is opposite that Jiangcun saves new things."
Another story says that on the day of Buddha’s enlightenment, the four heavenly kings came to earth and offered the Buddha gold, silver, glass, agate and other bowls with eight-treasure rice in them, and the Buddha gladly accepted them and combined them into one. In order to commemorate the Buddha’s 80% enlightenment on the first day of the twelfth lunar month, and to accept rice porridge offered by the four heavenly kings, Buddhist temples in Han Dynasty will cook Laba porridge for the Buddha on this day and distribute ten good letters, hoping that people who enjoy Laba porridge can share the Buddha’s joy of enlightenment and be blessed by the Buddha to grow in wealth and wisdom.