Long time no see everyone! Hope you’ve been doing well
Sorry I didn’t manage to make any videos for this channel last year
I was working on several other projects that took up most of my time
Anyhow, I’m glad to be sharing more content with you again!
Since it’s almost Chinese New Year time
I’m going to talk about what marks the first day of the new year celebration
Traditionally, Chinese people begin preparing for the new year starting from the Laba Festival
which falls on the eighth day of the twelfth month in the traditional Chinese calendar
This year it’s on January 10th, 2022
What does Laba stand for? What do people do on this day?
And most importantly why do people celebrate this holiday? Let’s find out
What’s the origin of this holiday?
It actually wasn’t called Laba at first
In The Book of Rites or Liji, it was written that
emperors would do a ritual called La in the twelfth month
to show appreciation to eight deities who govern agriculture and ask for blessings for the new year
Therefore the twelfth month of the year is named the La month
and the day this ritual is held on is called the La day
This was the original festival before Laba existed
It is believed that this La ritual was originally created by Shennong or the Divine Farmer during the Three Sovereigns period
This custom was then passed down and practiced during every dynasty later on
Part of this La day celebration includes worshiping the deities, as well as having a large feast
It was recorded that Confucius and his disciple Zigong had a conversation after watching a La ritual celebration
Confucius asked Zigong if he’s happy seeing the celebration
Zigong replied, “The entire country is celebrating like they are going wild. I don’t see what’s there to be so happy about.”
Confucius said, “People worked so hard for a whole year but only get to celebrate for one day
That’s not something you can understandThat’s not something you can understand
Allowing people to strike a proper balance between work and rest
is the way great sage rulers like King Wen and King Wu of Zhou manage their country.”
So back then, La represented the end of the year, a time to rest and celebrate
as well as conducting rituals to worship and thank the agriculture deities
After Buddhism was introduced to China during the Han Dynasty
the story of how Śhākyamuni came to enlightenment also became popular in China
According to the Genealogy of Śhākyamuni from the Liang dynasty
Śhākyamuni was born a prince but renounced his wealth and position to pursue cultivation in the woods
He practiced asceticism and only ate two pieces of grain per day
and sometimes only two pieces per week
He suffered for six years and his body became extremely weak
One milk maid offered milk-rice congee to the prince
He realized suffering alone is not the right path to enlightenment
So he ate the congee, regained enough strength and eventually attained righteous fruition
therefore becoming known as the Buddha
The day Śhākyamuni achieved enlightenment is the eighth day of the twelfth month in the traditional Chinese calendar
It is therefore called Laba festival in China
La refers to the twelfth month or La month
and Ba means eight in Chinese, referring to the date
It is also known as the Enlightenment Day of Buddha Śhākyamuni
Buddhist monks and laypeople would make mixed grain congee on this day to celebrate this event
As Chinese buddhism became more and more rooted in China, it also influenced Chinese culture
The Laba festival and La day celebration eventually merged into one holiday
And now making and eating grain congee is the most symbolic custom of this holiday
The mixed grain congee monks make on Laba festival is called the Laba congee
was also referred to as the buddha congee
During the Song dynasty, there were seven ingredients in the congee to represent the seven treasures of Chinese buddhism
People would start cooking it the night before
offer it to the buddha when it’s ready, and then eat it or gift it to others
By the Qing dynasty, there were more and more ingredients added to the list
such as yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, foxtail millet, water chestnut, chestnut, red cowpea
jujube paste, peach kernels, almonds, peanuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts, melon seeds, grapes, and more
And the Laba congee also got a new name, called babaozhou in Chinese, which means eight treasure congee
even though sometimes there are a lot more than eight ingredients in there
The Laba festival has evolved from doing rituals at the end of the year on La day
to celebrating the enlightenment day of the Buddha
It’s not hard to see that Chinese people have always been very spiritual throughout history
The reverence and respect Chinese people had towards higher beings stem from traditional Chinese culture
Unfortunately most of the culture and traditions were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution
Many Chinese people today don’t even know the history of their own holidays
That’s why I want to share facts and values from genuine traditional Chinese culture to inspire modern people’s lives
I hope you learned something valuable today
Don’t forget to like, share and subscribe
I’ll be talking about Chinese new year in my next video. I’ll see you soon!