If you live in China, you will hear a greeting today: “did you have Laba porridge today?”

Laba Festival is a traditional festival in China. December of the lunar calendar is commonly known as the twelfth month. The

eighth day of December is the Laba Festival, which is traditionally called Laba. Laba Festival has a long tradition and history in

China. On this day, drinking Laba porridge and making Laba porridge are the most traditional and fastidious customs of people

all over the country.

Laba porridge is made of eight kinds of fresh grain and fruits harvested in that year, which are generally sweet porridge.

In addition to rice, millet, mung bean, cowpea, bean, peanut, jujube and other raw materials, the porridge also contains

shredded meat, radish, cabbage, vermicelli, kelp, tofu and so on.

Laba porridge, also known as Babao porridge, is made from a mixture of many kinds of materials, and its cooking method is

the same as ordinary porridge. Materials: rice, wheat, corn, jujube, lotus seed, Coix, longan meat, all kinds of beans (red to,

mung beans, soybeans, black beans, Chixiaodou, etc.), etc., not all complete, choose a few. The ingredients of Laba porridge

are often endowed with beautiful meanings. For example, longan stands for “Reunion”.

In ancient times, Laba was called “La Ri”. In some places, it was also called “La RI Festival”, “La Ba Festival”, “Wang Hou La”

or “Buddha’s Dao day”.

It is a tradition of Han nationality in China to celebrate Laba, and it is also a grand festival of Buddhism. It originated from

the ancient people’s ceremonies of celebrating harvest, offering sacrifices to ghosts and gods and driving out pestilence. Later,

an element was added to commemorate the Buddha who became a Buddha on this day.

On Laba day, we will pickle Laba garlic. Laba garlic is also extremely simple. Put the peeled garlic flap into a sealed

jar or bottle, then pour in vinegar, seal the mouth and put it in a cold place. Slowly, the garlic soaked in vinegar will

turn green, and finally it will become green, just like jade. “Suan” and “calculation” in Laba garlic are homonymous,

meaning to calculate the annual revenue and expenditure.

Laba tofu is a folk specialty in Yi County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, and it is also the food custom of Laba

Festival. Before and after Laba, every household in Qianxian county had to bake tofu. As time goes by, this kind of

naturally baked tofu is called Laba tofu.

Laba tofu is made of soybean, pepper, spiced and other raw materials by traditional crafts, known as “plain ham”.

The color of the finished product is as yellow as jade, the entrance is soft, salty with sweet, fragrant and fresh.

Today is also the last of China’s 24 solar terms: cold. Laba has a lot of money to spend in case of severe cold.

May you always have money to spend.