The history of eating Laba porridge in my country has been more than a thousand years. It first started in the Song Dynasty. On every Laba day, whether it is the court, government, monastery or people's homes, they must make Laba porridge. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became even more popular. In the palace, the emperor, empress, prince, etc. would give Laba porridge to the ministers of civil and military affairs and the attendant maids, and distribute rice, fruits, etc. to various temples for the monks to eat. Among the people, every household also makes Laba porridge to worship ancestors. At the same time, families gather together to eat and give gifts to relatives and friends.

The origin of Laba porridge

Laba originated from Buddhism and is a Buddhist festival. The custom of eating Laba porridge also gradually spread from Buddhism to the people.

Laba Festival is one of the grand Buddhist festivals. According to Buddhist records, Sakyamuni practiced asceticism for many years before he became enlightened, and his body was broken and his bones were broken. Then he discovered that asceticism was not the path to ultimate liberation, and decided to give up asceticism. At this time, he met a shepherd girl who presented him with milk. After eating, he regained his strength, sat under the bodhi tree and meditated, and became enlightened on December 8. To commemorate this event, Buddhists held a ceremony on this day and cooked porridge with rice and fruits as offerings to the Buddha.

Since Buddhism was introduced to China, various monasteries have used fragrant grains and fruits to make porridge and give it to disciples and faithful men and women. On Laba day, various temples hold ceremonies, imitating the allusion of the shepherds offering chyle before the Buddha became enlightened, and use fragrant grains and fruits to cook porridge for the Buddha, which is called Laba porridge. Legend has it that after drinking this kind of porridge, you can get the blessing of Buddha. Therefore, Laba porridge is also called "Fushou porridge", "Fortune porridge" and "Buddha porridge". "Laba" was originally a Buddhist festival. It evolved over the generations and gradually became a well-known folk festival.

The story about Laba porridge

It is said that when he was young, Zhu Yuanzhang worked for the landlord's family as a herdsman and lived a life without enough food and clothing. Once, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he spent a day grazing sheep in the wild and had not eaten a decent meal by night. So he looked for things to satisfy his hunger in the wild. Suddenly, he found a big fat mouse on the edge of the field and hurriedly fled into a mouse hole. Zhu Yuanzhang approached the hole, dug out with a branch, and found some various kinds of things in the mouse hole. The grain, obviously, is the winter grain storage for mice. Zhu Yuanzhang took out a large handful of grains, including millet, corn, peanuts, red beans, etc. He washed these grains and cooked them into porridge, which tasted delicious. After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he still missed the "multigrain porridge" he made personally when he was a child. He stipulated that this kind of whole grain porridge should be made in the imperial dining hall, and designated the name of this kind of porridge as "Laba porridge". The imperial chef added gorgon seeds, lotus seeds, osmanthus, peach kernels, jujubes, etc. to the porridge to make the porridge extra sweet and delicious. Later, this kind of porridge spread to the people and continues to this day.

Laba porridge in various regions:

Due to regional differences, although people in various places have the custom of eating Laba porridge on the day of Laba Festival, the ingredients inside are very different. The following Let’s talk about the differences between Laba porridge in different places.

1. Beijing Laba Porridge

It is recorded in "Yanjing Chronicles Laba Porridge": "For Laba porridge, yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut rice, and chestnuts are used. "" The ancient Yanjing is now Beijing. Nowadays, Laba porridge has become simpler. The main ingredients are red dates, black rice, fragrant rice, walnuts, raisins, millet, red beans, corn, brown sugar, etc.

2. Tianjin Laba porridge

Tianjin and Beijing are not far apart, so the ingredients of Laba porridge in the two places are relatively similar, but some of them are more particular about the original ingredients. Plus lotus seeds, barley, sticky yellow rice, longan meat, mung beans, kidney beans, sweet-scented osmanthus, ginkgo, lily, pearl rice, barley kernels, sticky rice and so on.

3. Qinghai Laba porridge

Qinghai’s Laba porridge is different from the Laba porridge that everyone often eats. What they eat is rice, wheat kernel rice, using freshly ground wheat kernels and beef and mutton. Cook them together and simmer them over a slow fire for one night. During the cooking process, you also need to add seasonings, mainly green salt, pepper, grass fruit, ginger peel, Miaoxiang and other seasonings. It can be eaten after it is cooked until soft.

4. Sichuan Laba porridge

Sichuan Laba porridge is eaten salty, so not all Laba porridge is sweet. In some places, it is cooked and eaten salty. That is Sichuan, and of course Sichuan is also. It’s a big province, so the tastes in each region will still be different, not just salty, sweet, spicy, numbing, but also various flavors. The salty Laba porridge usually contains peanuts, white radish, diced pork, soybeans and other ingredients.

5. Gansu Laba porridge

The traditional Laba porridge in Gansu is cooked with grains and vegetables, but now in the city, rice, diced pork, beans, and lotus seeds are used to cook Laba porridge. , ginkgo, red berries, raisins, walnut kernels, dried apricots, green and red shreds, dried melon, sugar and other ingredients.

6. Shaanxi Laba porridge

Shaanxi’s Laba porridge is similar to the well-known Laba porridge, also called eight-treasure porridge. The main ingredients are adzuki beans, mung beans, cowpeas, jujubes, and rice. Jiangmi, sticky yellow rice, etc.

Today, "Laba porridge" no longer has any meaning of charity or Buddhism. It has long become a part of Chinese food culture and a frequent visitor on family tables.