"You can't finish eating Laba porridge. If you eat Laba porridge, you will have a good harvest."

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional folk festival in my country - the "Laba Festival".

On this day in Guanzhong, every household will cook a pot of "Laba porridge" and have a delicious meal.

Not only adults and children eat it, but also feed some to livestock, chickens and dogs, and put some on doors, walls, and trees for good luck.

The custom of eating "Laba porridge" during the "Laba Festival" has a long history and began to rise after humans entered agricultural society.

In ancient times, "La" meant sacrifice. As far back as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, our country had the habit of offering sacrifices to heaven, earth, gods, and ancestors together. This kind of comprehensive sacrifice was called "combined sacrifice."

This kind of sacrifice expresses a simple and kind-hearted psychological activity of ancient people, which means: at the end of the year, if you can get abundant food and abundant crops, you should thank the gods! So the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month was chosen to cook a pot

"Laba porridge" is used to pay homage to the gods, celebrate the harvest, and wish for a greater harvest in the coming year.

This formed the custom of eating Laba porridge during the Laba Festival.

During the inheritance of the Laba Festival, there is also a legend that on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, attained enlightenment and became a Buddha under the Bodhi tree after eating porridge cooked by a shepherd girl with apple glutinous rice dumplings.

People who believe in Buddhism in later generations chant sutras and eat porridge every eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which adds a religious color to the Laba Festival.

In any case, people eat Laba porridge to celebrate the harvest.

"Laba porridge" can indeed reflect the agricultural harvest, because it is made of various rice (jiang rice, yellow rice, white rice, sorghum rice, etc.), various beans (soybeans, cloud beans, cowpeas, etc.), various dried fruits (jujubes, etc.)

, chestnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, cinnamon meat, etc.), a kind of porridge mixed with tofu and meat. This kind of porridge reflects the results of the agricultural harvest.

People in Guanzhong and some nearby areas attach great importance to the "Laba Festival".

However, there are different requirements from county to county, township to township, and village to village.

Farmers in Fuping County like to make wine on this day, which is called "La Jiao"; the ancient custom in Chang'an County is to boil minced meat and throw it on flowers and trees on this day, which is called "Never Break the Branches"; in Qian County and Liquan areas,

During the Laba Festival, porridge is given to the elderly, and the daughter’s family invites the new son-in-law to eat porridge; in Fengxiang area, they use yellow rice and eight kinds of beans, plus oil and salt to make a stewed Laba rice; in rural areas of Tongchuan area, people also eat porridge on this day.

It is a popular custom to shave the heads of young boys and girls.

All these have different tastes.

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Chinese people have the custom of eating Laba porridge.

It is said that Laba porridge came from India.

The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, was originally the son of King Suddhodana of Kapilavastu in ancient northern India (now in Nepal). Seeing that all living beings were suffering from birth, old age, illness, and death, he was dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of Brahmins at that time, so he gave up his throne and became a monk to practice Taoism.

There was no harvest at first, but after six years of asceticism, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, he enlightened and became a Buddha under the bodhi tree.

During these six years of asceticism, he only ate one hemp and one meter a day.

Later generations will not forget his suffering and eat porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month as a commemoration.

"Laba" has become the "Anniversary of Buddha's Enlightenment".

"Laba" is a grand Buddhist festival.

Before liberation, Buddhist temples in various places held Buddha bathing meetings and chanted sutras. They also imitated the legend of the shepherdess offering chyle before Sakyamuni attained enlightenment. They used fragrant grains, fruits, etc. to cook porridge for the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge".

He gave Laba porridge to his disciples and faithful men and women, and it became a custom among the people.

It is said that before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in some temples, monks hold alms bowls and go alms along the streets, cooking the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributing it to the poor.

Legend has it that after eating it, you can get blessings from the Buddha, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge".

Lu You's poem in the Southern Song Dynasty goes: "Nowadays, Buddhas feed each other more porridge, while Juejiang Village keeps new things." It is said that there is a "restaurant" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Normally, the monks dry the leftovers in the sun every day and accumulate a

The surplus grain of the new year is cooked into Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month and distributed to believers. It is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fushou porridge", which means that eating it can increase happiness and longevity.

It can be seen that the monks in the temples at that time cherished the virtue of food.

Laba porridge was cooked with red beans and glutinous rice in ancient times. Later, the ingredients gradually increased.

Zhou Mi of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote "Old Martial Arts": "Porridge made from walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms, persimmon chestnuts, etc. is called 'Laba porridge'".

To this day, people in the vast areas south of the Yangtze River, northeast, and northwest of my country still retain the custom of eating Laba porridge, but it is rare in Guangdong.

The ingredients used vary, and glutinous rice, red beans, dates, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo, lotus seeds, lilies, etc. are often used to cook sweet porridge.

There are also those that add longan, longan meat, candied fruit and the like.

Eating a steaming bowl of Laba porridge in winter is both delicious and nutritious, and can indeed increase happiness and longevity.

(China Spring Festival Network) Laba porridge food customs in various places On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, folk custom calls it Laba porridge. It is the first festival before the Spring Festival. Since then, the "New Year flavor" has become increasingly intense.

The custom of eating Laba rice porridge has been in our country for thousands of years, and it has a unique origin.

According to legend, in the northern part of ancient India, which is today's southern Nepal, there was King Suddhodana in Kapilavastu. He had a son named Siddhartha Gautama. When he was young, he was deeply aware of the various aspects of life, old age, illness, and death in this world.

He was distressed, found that social life was futile, and was extremely dissatisfied with the theocratic power of Brahmanism. Therefore, when he was 29 years old, he abandoned the luxurious life of the royal family, became a monk, practiced yoga, and practiced asceticism for 6 years, about 525 BC.

, one day, under a Bodhi tree in Buddhagaya, he became enlightened and founded Buddhism.