About LaBa Festival
Do you know what is Laba Festival? (in Chinese: 腊八节)
Laba Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the month of La, also the twelfth month of the Chinese calendar. It is the beginning of the Chinese New Year period. So there is a saying that “After the Laba, it is the New year.”
The Laba Festival is also known as the “magic weapon festival”, “Buddha into the Taoist Festival”, “into the Taoist festival” and so on. This is a Buddhist festival to commemorate the path of Sakyamuni Buddha, and then gradually became a folk festival.
What customs in Laba? Why do we eat Laba porridge?
Laba porridge is one kind of rice porridge with nuts and dried fruit. Chinese people eat it on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is also known as “seven treasures and five flavor porridge”, “Buddha porridge”, “Everybody‘s rice” and so on. It is made from a variety of ingredients. In the history, some believers of Buddhism came to temples for the “porridge” on the Laba day, thinking that the porridge for the Buddha is auspicious, they not only ate it themselves, but also took it home for their families to enjoy. Year after year, the tradition of making Laba porridge in temples was widely spread to the people, thus gradually forming the custom of eating Laba porridge in northern China.
The earliest writing of Laba porridge was recorded in the Song Dynasty. A poet Wu Zimu in the Song Dynasty said: ” On the eighth day of this month, the temple called the day Laba. All Temples provided five flavor porridge, called Laba porridge.” The history of eating Laba porridge in China has been more than a thousand years. Every time on the Laba day, whether the government, temples or the people would make Laba porridge. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of eating Laba porridge was even more popular.
In the north of China, there is “Children, don’t greedy, after Laba is the year”. Laba means that the opening of the prelude to the New Year. Every Laba Festival, the northern region is busy peeling garlic vinegar, bubbling Laba garlic, eating Laba porridge. The Laba Festival is rarely mentioned in the south, and the Laba Festival is a typical northern festival.
As mentioned above, “After the Laba, it is the New year.” The Chinese New Year, which falls about three weeks later, is also an very important festival for Chinese people. Whether you knew Laba or not before, you may have some idea from this article now. We Sanfeng wish you happy every day!
For more information, you can refer to: 腊八节（中国传统节日）_百度百科 (baidu.com)
