Now every December is called the twelfth lunar month because of the existence of Laba Festival, which falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. After Laba, you should look forward to the new year. It is said that because of the poor living conditions in the past, I didn't even have enough to eat at ordinary times, let alone beans (low yield of beans and few varieties of beans), so I can eat a good meal on Laba Festival.
I live in south-central Henan and grew up in the countryside. Let's talk about the custom of Laba Festival there. We didn't drink Laba porridge on Laba day, but had rice at noon. I still remember when I was a child, rice changed from two Jin of wheat to one Jin of rice, so eating rice became the time to improve the food at home. Because eating rice requires cooking, especially meat dishes during festivals, because I usually eat noodles every day (Henan's diet is super simple), I especially wanted to cook a delicious rice at home when I was a child, so that I could eat full at noon on Laba Festival, and I felt flattered. Maybe I was short of rice when I was a child, and I still like to eat rice until now.
When I was a child, my family used to have rice. After these years, I found that my family began to drink eight-treasure porridge now. In my mother's words, this is called keeping pace with the times, and customs change with the change of practice.
On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Shaanxi does not drink Laba porridge, but eats Laba noodles. Laba noodles make soup with red beans, stir-fry chopped green onion, and then everyone eats a steaming bowl of Laba noodles below.
In northern Shaanxi, you can't eat vegetables on Laba Festival. If you eat vegetables, there will be a lot of weeds in the field and the crops will not be harvested well in the coming year. Laba porridge should not only be eaten, but also placed on the gate and trunk, or for the bumper harvest in the coming year.
I have never been to the south, and I don't know what is the custom of celebrating Laba Festival in the south.