First of all, the traditional dietary customs of Laba Festival
? 1, drink Laba porridge
Laba has the custom of eating Laba porridge on this day. Laba porridge is also called Qibao Wuwei porridge. China has been 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. Although the ingredients of Laba porridge in different regions are different, they basically include cereals such as rice, millet, glutinous rice, sorghum rice, purple rice and coix seed, beans such as soybeans, red beans, mung beans, kidney beans and cowpeas, and dried fruits such as red dates, peanuts, lotus seeds, medlar, chestnuts, walnuts, almonds, longan, raisins and ginkgo. Laba porridge is not only a seasonal food, but also a good health care product, especially suitable for maintaining the spleen and stomach in cold weather.
? 2. Laba wine and Laba garlic
On Laba Festival, people in old Beijing will make Laba wine and Laba garlic. Soaking Laba wine means soaking purple garlic cloves in yellow rice wine or sorghum wine, sealing them and opening them for drinking during the Spring Festival. Laba wine smells good, and it can also promote blood circulation and warm the stomach.
Laba garlic, also known as Laba vinegar, is a traditional snack mainly popular in the north, especially in North China. The method is extremely simple, that is, soak the purple garlic cloves in a ceramic jar, fill it with rice vinegar and seal it, and wait until New Year's Eve to eat jiaozi mixed cold dishes. This kind of acetic acid is spicy, and the soaked garlic is turquoise in color, green all over, like jade and jasper, which is particularly beautiful and crisp when eaten in the mouth.
There is another saying about the custom of "garlic" soaking in vinegar or wine in old Beijing, which originated from the homonym of "garlic" and "suan". In the old society of Beijing, shops of various firms had the custom of closing accounts in the twelfth lunar month, that is, clearing the profit and loss of income and expenditure for one year and checking foreign debts and accounts receivable. At that time, it was usually from the day of Laba, as the saying goes, "You will get old after eating laba rice." Therefore, Laba Festival is also called Laba Festival. From the day of Laba, the clerk or money lender will often give the debtor a small jar of garlic soaked in Laba, and the debtor will know at a glance that it is a debt repayment. When the poor or small traders who borrow money are unable to pay their debts, they go out to hide their debts in the Laba on the 18th and 28th of the twelfth lunar month. Therefore, in order to avoid those who settle accounts and demand debts, ordinary people make "Laba garlic" or "Laba wine" and eat and drink it to get rid of bad luck and enjoy a peaceful and auspicious year.
Second, the customs of Laba Festival in North and South China
? North?
? 1, Shaanxi Customs
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.
In some places where little or no rice is produced, people eat laba noodles instead of laba porridge. Make minced meat with all kinds of fruits and vegetables and roll out noodles. On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family eats together.
? 2. Northwest Customs
Laba Festival is in the northern Shaanxi Plateau. In addition to rice and beans, porridge also contains various dried fruits, tofu and meat. After eating, you should put porridge on the door, on the stove and on the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters, so as to welcome the next year's agricultural harvest. Moreover, it is forbidden to eat vegetables on Laba. If you eat vegetables on this day, there will be more weeds in the crops. On Laba Festival, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship ancestors and granaries with porridge.
? 3. Beijing Customs
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.
On the seventh night of the twelfth lunar month, people began to wash rice, soak fruits, peel and remove stones, and began to stew with low fire in the middle of the night. Laba porridge was not cooked until the next morning.
? South:?
? 1, Guangdong Customs
In Guangdong, the atmosphere of Laba Festival is very light. Why don't Cantonese celebrate Laba Festival? This is related to the geographical location and the living habits of Guangfu people since ancient times.
The ancient Lingnan water town has not been developed, and the life of the aborigines is not dominated by farming. They all make a living by fishing for shrimp and fish on the water. No one grows beans and whole grains needed to cook Laba porridge, so there will be no custom of eating these things.
Some people in Guangdong have also eaten Laba porridge, but it is mainly in the Pearl River Delta area, which is a custom brought by Hakkas in the north, but the materials used to make Laba porridge have always been different. Millet and red dates are used in the north, and glutinous rice, lily and lotus seeds are used in the south.
? 2.Fujian Customs
The traditional Laba porridge in Fuzhou has an interesting feature: putting a few little lions made of fruit on the porridge can ward off evil spirits. In the past, people in Fuzhou generally began to cook Laba porridge on the seventh night of the twelfth lunar month and stewed it carefully all night. The next morning, Laba porridge was ready.
Some people will carve the fruit into various shapes first, and the most interesting thing is to be a "fruit lion". Crispy jujube is peeled and dried to make a lion's body, half walnut kernel is the lion's head, peach kernel is the lion's foot, almond is the lion's tail, and then all parts are glued together with syrup and placed on porridge noodles.
If the bowl is big, you can also put a pair of lions to mean "avoiding evil and being lucky". In the courtyard of the temple, there are also small shapes such as the Eight Immortals, Luohan and Shouxing Palace made of colored foods such as jujube paste, red bean paste and hawthorn.
After laba porridge is made, it is offered to the gods and ancestors early in the morning, and then given to relatives and friends, and sent out before noon. Finally, the whole family will share food and leave a little, which is a sign of "more than one year". In the cold winter, drinking a bowl of steaming, sweet and delicious Laba porridge to drive away the cold and warm the stomach is also of great benefit to human health.
? 3.Jiangxi Customs
Laba Festival is the first festival before the Spring Festival, and Nanchang people regard Laba as a prelude to the Spring Festival. Starting from Laba, every household should prepare peanuts, melon seeds and bacon to buy new year's goods. There is a folk saying that "eat Laba porridge and look forward to the New Year".
"You don't have to pick Laba, it's lucky and longevity." In Nanchang, Laba is also a traditional auspicious day. On this day, Nanchang people not only drink Laba porridge, but also often hold Laba weddings such as betrothal, wife-in-law, and wife-in-law.
In ancient times, in addition to offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, there were also "Nuo". Nuo is a unique culture in Jiangxi, and it is a ceremony to drive away epidemic ghosts.
In Nanchang, in order to inherit and develop Nuo culture, Honggutan New District invested in the construction of Nuo Culture Park. According to historical records, performers usually wear masks, pretend to be King Kong, Lux and Fang Ping, hold their hands with knives, and everyone beats drums to drive away ghosts and epidemics. This is also called wax tube to drive away the epidemic. It is said that children can be safe and healthy.
Later, it changed its form among the people and became fried beans and wheat. Stir-fry both beans and wheat, and then let the children eat some. This is called "biting ghosts".