On Laba Festival, people will drink Laba porridge. Legend has it that the eighth day of December is the day when Buddha Sakyamuni achieved enlightenment, so everyone needs to do Buddhist work, cook porridge and send porridge to the poor. The temple gave Laba porridge in Laba, not only to commemorate the Buddha's enlightenment, but also to bring all beings to the "eight difficulties" and care for all beings.

The Laba Festival began in the Zhou Dynasty, and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month offered sacrifices to Ba Shen in all directions, praying for good weather in the coming year. A few days before Laba, the Laba porridge eaten by the Ming emperor was about to break the red dates and soak them in water. Add japonica rice, ginkgo, walnut, chestnut and water chestnut to cook porridge during Laba Festival. Later, the custom of eating Laba porridge was introduced to the people and became a traditional folk festival.

Both are Laba porridge, and different places have different cooking methods. Most people like to cook slowly with glutinous rice, millet, red beans, soybeans, coix seed, peanuts, red dates and longan.

Jiangsu Laba porridge is divided into sweet porridge and salty porridge, and salty porridge will be added with vegetables and oil. In the northern Shaanxi Plateau, besides all kinds of rice and beans, porridge also contains all kinds of dried fruits, tofu and meat.

Old Nanjing people usually cook and eat. The content of vegetable rice is different. It is cooked with short-legged yellow vegetables and sliced bacon, sausage or diced salted duck, and then chopped with some ginger and glutinous rice. Very delicious.

Laba porridge in Gansu uses grains and vegetables. After cooking, it is not only eaten by family members, but also distributed to neighbors to feed livestock.