There are two legends about the origin of Laba Festival. On the eighth day of December, Buddha Sakyamuni fell to the side of the road because of hunger and fatigue, and was found by a shepherdess who saved his life with rice porridge, which made him realize that he had become a Buddha. On the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, herded cattle to the rich man when he was a child. He was shut up in a room by the rich man because of his broken leg, and he was hungry for three days. He searched everywhere and finally found a mouse hole, from which he dug out beans, grains and other foods and cooked them into porridge, which was very sweet. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang became an emperor. Remembering the taste of porridge when he was a child, he ordered eunuchs to cook a pot of sugar porridge with all kinds of food and celebrate the ministers. Later, the officials of the civil and military dynasties rushed to follow suit and spread it to the people, which became a holiday custom. Because Zhu Yuanzhang eats sugar porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, this porridge is also called "Laba porridge"
"Laba" is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples all over the country held Buddhist bathing meetings and chanted scriptures, and imitated the legend of a herdess offering chyle before Sakyamuni became a Taoist, and cooked porridge with fragrant valleys and fruits to offer to the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge was presented to disciples and good men and women, and it became a custom among the people in the future. It is said that in some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held alms bowls along the street and cooked the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributed it to the poor. Legend has it that you can get the blessing of Buddha after eating it, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge" Lu You's poem in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and it is opposite that Jiangcun saves new things." It is said that there is a "rice stack building" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, monks in the temple dry the leftovers every day, accumulate a year's surplus food, and cook them into Laba porridge for believers on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fude porridge", which means that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating them. It can be seen that monks at that time cherished the virtue of food.