The festival falls on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.

The Laha Festival is celebrated on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, and the main custom is to drink Laha congee. It is one of the great Buddhist festivals.

According to Buddhist records, Siddhartha Gautama had practiced austerity for many years before he became a Buddhist, and his bones fell off, so he realized that austerity was not the way to liberation, and decided to give up austerity. At this time, he met a shepherd girl who presented him with milk, and after eating it, he recovered his strength, sat under the Bodhi tree and meditated, and "became a monk" on December 8th.

To commemorate this event, Buddhists held a puja on this day, making congee with rice and fruits for the Buddha. Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote in Mengliang Records: "The eighth day of this month is called Lapa in monasteries. Dasha and other temples, all set up five-flavored porridge, called Laha congee."

Since the introduction of Buddhism to China, monasteries have made congee with fragrant grains and fruits to give to disciples and good men and women. On the 8th day of the 8th lunar month, all monasteries held a puja, following the example of the shepherdess who offered milk and rice before the Buddha became a Taoist priest, and made congee with fragrant grains and fruits to offer to the Buddha, which was called Laha congee.

Legend has it that after drinking this porridge, you can get the blessing of the Buddha, therefore, Laha congee is also called "Fukushou congee", "Fude congee", and "Buddha congee". "Lapa" was originally a Buddhist festival, and then evolved through the ages, gradually becoming a household name in the folk festival.

Laha congee of different places

1. Shaanxi: After the Laha congee is boiled, it is given to friends and relatives and must be sent out before noon. It is finally consumed by the whole family. Leftover Laha congee, save a few days to eat there are left over, but a good omen, taking the meaning of its "year after year".

If the porridge is given to the poor to eat, it is more for their own virtue. Some places that do not produce or produce less rice, people do not eat Laha porridge, but eat Laha noodles. With a variety of fruits and vegetables into a bashful, the noodles rolled. To the morning of the eighth day of the eighth month of Lunar New Year, the whole family ate together.

2. Gansu: traditionally cooked congee with grains, vegetables, cooked in addition to family members to eat, but also sent to the neighbors, but also used to feed livestock. Gansu Wuwei region is concerned about the "vegetarian Lahai", eat rice thick rice, lentil rice or thick rice, cooked with fried loose seeds, sesame flowers with food, folklore called it "lentil porridge bubble loose.

3. Beijing: Beijing's Laba congee can be said to be the most elaborate. Mixed in the white rice more things, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, cinnamon, grapes, white fruit, green silk, roses, red beans, peanuts ...... no less than 20 kinds. People in the seventh night of the first day of the month of wax began to wash rice, soak fruit, peeling, removing the core, midnight began to stew with a slight fire, until early the next morning, Laha congee is considered to be simmering well.