The traditional custom of eating Laba porridge during the Laba Festival is a religious activity in Buddhism.

On this day, the monks in the temple mix rice, wheat, beans, cereals, various grains, dates, chestnuts and other dried fruits collected from all over the place and cook them into porridge as offerings. Come to commemorate Buddha’s enlightenment. This porridge is the "Laba porridge" we drink. This is a religious activity of Buddhism.

With the spread of Buddhism, this religious activity spread from temples to secular people, and the raw materials and methods of Laba porridge were naturally passed down. Over time, it actually formed customs and allusions.

Every Laba festival, everyone from the emperor's court to the common people, as long as they can afford food and clothing, cook porridge and worship the Buddha on this day. However, according to their respective economic conditions, there are differences in the variety of rice porridge, the pattern of the porridge, and the complexity of the ceremony. We just do our best and do our best.

Different Laba porridge from different places during the Laba Festival

1. Shaanxi: After the Laba porridge is cooked, it should be given to relatives and friends. It must be given out before noon, and finally eaten by the whole family. Leftover Laba porridge, if you keep it for a few days and still have it left over, it is a good sign, which means "more than enough every year".

If you give porridge to poor people to eat, it will accumulate virtue for yourself. In some places where there is little or no rice production, people do not eat Laba porridge, but eat Laba noodles. Use various fruits and vegetables to make sautee, and roll out the noodles. On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family eats together.

2. Gansu: Traditionally, grains and vegetables are used to cook Laba porridge. After cooking, it is not only eaten by the family, but also distributed to neighbors and used to feed livestock. The Wuwei area of ??Gansu Province pays attention to "vegetarian Laba", eating thick rice, lentil rice or thick rice. After cooking, it is eaten with fried rice dumplings and twists. The folk custom calls it "lentil porridge soaked rice".