The Laba Festival is the most significant festival in the twelfth lunar month, which falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It was called "Laba" in ancient times, commonly known as "Laba Festival", also known as "Laba Sacrifice", "Laba Ceremony", "Wanghou Laba" or "Buddha's Enlightenment Day". Since the pre-Qin period, the Laba Festival has been used to worship ancestors and deities, praying for a bountiful harvest and good fortune. In addition to the activities of worshipping ancestors and deities, people also perform the ritual of driving away evil spirits. This activity originated from the ancient "Nuo" ceremony, an ancient ritual for driving away demons and preventing diseases. One of the medical methods in prehistoric times was to drive away demons and treat illnesses. The custom of beating drums in the twelfth lunar month to drive away evil spirits still exists in some areas such as Xin Hua in Hunan today.
According to legend, the Laba Festival falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month and originated during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. It is said that at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was suffering in prison. It was freezing cold, and he was both hungry and cold. He found some red beans, rice, red dates and seven or eight kinds of grains from the mouse hole in the prison. Zhu Yuanzhang made a porridge with these ingredients. Since it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he named this porridge "Laba Porridge". He enjoyed a delicious meal. Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang unified the country and became the emperor, he set this day as the Laba Festival and officially named the porridge he ate that day "Laba Porridge".
Legend Two: On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Chinese people have the custom of eating Laba Porridge. It is said that Laba Porridge came from India. The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, was the son of King Suddhodana of Kapilavastu, located in the northern part of ancient India (now in Nepal). He saw the suffering of all living beings caused by birth, old age, illness, and death, and was dissatisfied with the priestly rule of Brahmanism. He gave up his royal position and went into asceticism. At first, he had no success, but after six years of hardship, he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During these six years of ascetic practices, he ate only one sesame seed and one grain of rice each day. People remember his suffering, and every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, they eat porridge to commemorate him. "Laba" thus became the "Buddha's Enlightenment Memorial Day." "Laba" is a grand festival for Buddhists. Before liberation, temples held bathing ceremonies, recited scriptures, and imitated the story of the milk porridge offered by a shepherdess to Sakyamuni before his enlightenment. They cooked porridge with fragrant grains and fruits to offer to the Buddha, calling it "Laba Porridge." They also distributed the Laba Porridge to monks and lay believers, and later this practice became a tradition among the people. It is said that some temples sent monks with bowls to beg for food along the streets before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, collecting rice, chestnuts, dates, and other ingredients to cook Laba Porridge and give it to the poor. It is said that eating it could bring blessings from the Buddha, so the poor called it "Buddha Porridge." The Southern Song poet Lu You wrote: "Today, the Buddha porridge is exchanged, and I feel the festive atmosphere of the village anew." It is said that there is a "storehouse for leftover rice" called "Zhan Faren Building" in the famous temple Tianning in Hangzhou. Monks daily dried the leftover rice, accumulated the surplus for a year, and then cooked Laba Porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to distribute to believers, calling it "Fushou Porridge" or "Fude Porridge," meaning that eating it could increase blessings and longevity. It can be seen that the monks' virtue of cherishing food was evident at that time.
Laba Porridge was originally made with red beans and glutinous rice, and later the ingredients gradually increased. The Southern Song scholar Zhou Mi wrote in "The Old Customs of Wulin": "Porridge was made using walnuts, pine nuts, milk fungus, persimmon fungus, persimmon and chestnuts, etc., called 'Laba Porridge.' " Today, people in large areas of Jiangnan, Northeastern, and Northwestern China still maintain the custom of eating Laba Porridge, while it is less common in Guangdong. The ingredients vary, and it is usually made with glutinous rice, red beans, jujubes, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo nuts, lotus seeds, and lilies to make a sweet porridge. Some add longan, lychee meat, and preserved fruits to cook together. Eating a bowl of hot Laba Porridge in winter is not only delicious and nutritious but indeed brings blessings and longevity.
