The origin of Laba Festival

Since ancient times, Laba has been used to worship ancestors and gods (including door gods, household gods, house gods, kitchen gods and well gods) in order to pray for good harvest and good luck. According to the Book of Rites, La Worship was "the year of December, when everything gathered and everything wanted something." 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 winter solstice, and then Buddhism was introduced. In order to expand its influence in the local area, traditional culture attaches Laba Festival as the Buddhist calendar enlightenment day. Later, with the prevalence of Buddhism, the Buddha's enlightenment day merged with the twelfth day, which was called the "magic weapon festival" in Buddhism. The Northern and Southern Dynasties began to be fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

This activity originated from ancient Nuo. 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.

Extended data:

According to legend, in the northern part of ancient India, that is, in the southern part of Nepal, there was a king of suddhodana who lived in Kapilovi. He has a son named Gautama Siddharta. When he was young, he felt all kinds of pains of birth, illness and death. He found that social life was futile and was extremely dissatisfied with the theocracy of Brahmanism. So at the age of 29, he abandoned the luxurious life of the royal family, became a monk and learned to practice.

According to historical records, this day is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in China. Because he was Sakyamuni, Buddhists later called him Sakyamuni, which means Sakyamuni's saint. After Buddhism was introduced into China, monasteries were built everywhere, and the activity of cooking porridge to worship Buddha became popular. Especially on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Sakyamuni offered sacrifices to cultivate Buddha, all monasteries held chanting, and imitated the legendary program of offering a kind of "chyle" before Buddhism became a Buddha, and cooked porridge to worship Buddha. This is the origin of Laba porridge.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Laba Festival