Lapa is an authentic Chinese festival, one of the traditional festivals with a long history in China's folklore.

There are many people who believe that Lapa is a Buddhist festival that was passed down from India.

This festival began in the Zhou Dynasty. China has emphasized agriculture since ancient times. Whenever the agricultural production of a good harvest, the ancients believed that the gods of heaven and earth to help bless the results, to celebrate the agricultural harvest of the grand thanks ceremony, known as the big wax. It is recorded in "Suburbia Special Cattle" that "Wax is also, Suo is also, the year of December, the joint sacrifice of all things and Suo countryside also." After the end of the wax ceremony, the ancients had to carry out feast activities, with the newly produced millet porridge, a large group of people gathered to celebrate the festive season.

Anciently, there is a record of "the Son of Heaven's great wax eight" (see "suburb special livestock"). Passed down, the eighth day of the first month of the waxing moon has become a folk custom festival. The Jing Chu chronicle said: "December 8 for the day of wax," should be a reflection of the date of the folk tradition of wax.

During the Han Dynasty, an end-of-year wax festival was held in December of the lunar calendar every year, which is why December of the lunar calendar is also called the "month of wax" or "waxing month". The congee cooked on the eighth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year was called "Laha congee".

There are a lot of legends about the origin of Laha congee, and they vary from place to place. One of the most widely circulated is the story about the commemoration of Sakyamuni Buddha:

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after the introduction of Buddhism into our country, with the help of Lahai worship and eat porridge folklore, to preach, in order to preach the smooth, the new story:

Lahai month, the first eight days of the Buddha Sakyamuni, the Buddha became a day of the road. Before Siddhartha Gautama became a Buddha, he had practiced asceticism for many years, and was so hungry and thin that he decided to give up his asceticism. At this time, he met a shepherd girl who gave him milk and rice to satisfy his hunger. After eating, he regained his strength, sat under the Bodhi tree and meditated, and became a monk on the eighth day of the waxing moon. To commemorate this event, Buddhists made congee with rice and fruits and offered it to the Buddha on that day, which is called Lapa congee. Therefore, this day is also a Buddhist holiday, called the "Festival of Successful Path".

Legend has it that Siddhartha Gautama escaped from the royal palace and became a monk on Mount Kadu, studying the classics and spending six years in the mountains. When he finished his studies, it was the eighth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, which is generally referred to as the "Sakyamuni's day of enlightenment" in Buddhism.

According to the Karma Sutra, Siddhartha Gautama had no time to care about his personal food and clothing because of his six years of austerity and ate only some hemp and wheat every day, and he did not have enough to eat and drink for many years. At the end of his study period, he was already in rags, thin and bony, and his appearance was like withered wood.

He walked down Mount Kathu, exhausted, and sat by the river, begging from the village people. A cowherd woman in the village boiled milk in a pot and gave it to Siddhartha Gautama to eat, which quickly restored his health. After the prosperity of Buddhism, in order to commemorate this incident, it is stipulated that this day for the people of ancient India "fasting monks" and relief of the poor to give food and drink day.

After the introduction of Buddhism into China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the first eight days of Lunar New Year's alms this matter gradually became a boil "Lunar New Year's porridge" custom. Some Buddhist temples in China boil "Laha congee", in honor of the story of the Nilian River cowherd woman relief Siddhartha Gautama.

With the prosperity of Buddhism, Laha congee is also popular among the people. Rich people's Laha congee to dozens of kinds of rice, beans and fruits simmered, family and friends also give each other. Poor people also want to use millet red dates on this day to simmer a pot of porridge should be seasonal. Legend has it that "Lahai not congee, next year will be poorer". In the Qing Dynasty, the palace to drink congee is the Yonghe Palace Lama boiled after the tribute.

So, the Indian Buddhist culture has injected the connotation of "Buddha" into the Laha Festival in China, but it is not a "Buddhist festival" from India.

There is also a legend that originated in the early Ming Dynasty. According to legend, when Zhu Yuanzhang fell in prison suffering, at the time of the cold, Zhu Yuanzhang muscle cold, even from the prison of the rat hole planing out red beans, rice, red dates and other seven or eight kinds of grains and cereals. He then boiled these things into a porridge, because that day is the eighth day of the eighth month, Zhu Yuanzhang will be beautifully named this pot of miscellaneous grain porridge for the "congee on the eighth day of the eighth month". Enjoy a beautiful meal. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang pacified the world, sitting in the north towards the south to do the emperor, in order to commemorate that special day in prison, he then set the day as Lahai Festival, the day he ate mixed grain congee officially named Lahai congee.

The formation of the Lahai Festival, in fact, there are more than a few simple legends, many factors, other folk legends are more colorful, each with its own characteristics, is formed after thousands of years of Chinese history and complex evolution.

All this proves that Lahai is the authentic traditional festival of China.