1-1-2 Laba porridge
The 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.
