Laba porridge
1 min readThe two most important traditions associated with Laba Festival are eating Laba porridge, and praying for peace and good health in the coming year.
Virtually every household in China eats Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Filled with nuts and dried fruit, today’s Laba porridge is both tastier and more appealing to the eye than the”Buddha porridge”of the past. Today, Laba porridge serves as a symbol of good fortune, long life, and fruitful harvest.
The custom of eating Laba porridge is not only an expression of respect for Buddha and the ancestral spirits Laba porridge is also a very nourishing and healthful food. In his encyclopedic classic of herbal medicine Bencao Gangmu(Compendium of materia Medica), eminent Ming dynasty physician Li Shizhen states that rice porridge increases the life force, produces saliva, nourishes the spleen and stomach, and resolves sweating due to weak constitution at health.
Eating Laba porridge is a distinctive and popular tradition of the Laba Festival. Buddhist tradition equates porridge with good fortune. Friends, family, and neighbors customarily exchange gifts of Laba porridge to express good wishes. In the past, devout Buddhists presented gifts of Laba porridge to the emperor and local officials. It can be seen that Laba porridge was a favorite holiday gift not only among the rulers and bureaucracy of feudal China, but also in every strata of society.
