Basic interpretation: Laba Festival, porridge is made from cereals such as rice and beans and dried fruits such as dates, chestnuts and lotus seeds. Originated from Buddhism, it is said that Sakyamuni became a monk on this day, so every time the temple cooked porridge for the Buddha on this day, the people would follow suit.

Detailed explanation: Buddhists call the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month Laba. On that day, the major monasteries cooked porridge with miscellaneous fruits and shared it with monks, hence the name. Villagers have followed suit. Song Meng's Dream in Tokyo in December: "On the eighth day of August ... the temple held a Buddhist bath and sent seven kinds of porridge and disciples, which was called Laba porridge. Everyone is a Japanese family and also eats fruit porridge. "

The 19th time in A Dream of Red Mansions: "Laba will be cooked tomorrow, and everyone in the world will cook Laba porridge. "Laba porridge by Shen Congwen": "Beginners will call rickshaws when they go out, and old children with many white beards will immediately feel a sweet and greasy feeling when they mention Laba porridge. "

In Beijing, neighbors will give laba porridge to each other, and at the same time, they will also give some sauerkraut. Whether sauerkraut is good or not also symbolizes whether this family has a good year. In Shanxi, Laba porridge, also called Babao porridge, is mainly made of millet, with cowpea, adzuki bean, mung bean, jujube, sticky yellow rice and rice.

In Shaanxi, in addition to all kinds of rice and beans, dried fruits, tofu and meat are also added to make porridge. After eating, you should also hang porridge on doors, stoves and trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters.

In Gansu, after cooked, Laba porridge will be used to worship the door gods, kitchen gods, land gods and wealth gods, and pray for good weather and abundant crops in the coming year, and then distributed to relatives and friends for the whole family to enjoy.

There are two kinds of Laba porridge in Confucius' House in Shandong Province. The first one is made of coix seed, longan, lotus seeds, lilies, chestnuts, red dates and japonica rice. Finally, add some porridge fruit as decoration. This kind of porridge is for Confucius' master. The second kind is cooked with rice, sliced meat, cabbage, tofu, etc. , is for humans to eat.

In Jiangsu, Laba porridge is divided into sweet and salty, and the method is the same, except that salty porridge adds vegetables and oil. Moreover, Suzhou people like to put arrowheads, water chestnuts, walnuts, Euryale ferox, Flammulina velutipes, Euryale ferox, fungus and so on when cooking Laba porridge.

In Sichuan, there are various cooking methods of Laba porridge, such as sweet, salty, spicy and so on. In rural Sichuan, people who like salty taste will cook porridge with soybeans, peanuts, diced meat, white radish and carrots.