Laba porridge sweetens prelude of Chinese Lunar New Year

Chinese people start their preparations for the Spring Festival more than 20 days ahead. The 12th lunar month in Chinese is called la yue, so the eighth day of this lunar month is la yue chu ba, or laba. The day is also known as the Laba Festival. The Laba Festival this year falls on today.

A folk saying goes "when Laba arrives, the Spring Festival is around the corner", meaning the festival marks the start of a series of Spring Festival celebrations.

The custom on Laba Festival is to savor Laba porridge. There are several legends about the origin of porridge eating on Laba: Some claim it is of Buddhist origin; some say the porridge, made of red beans, can exorcize evil from children. Others say the porridge is in memory of a poor couple.

The custom of porridge eating has been well known throughout history, from the royal court to common people.

The main ingredients of the Laba porridge are rice and sticky rice; people also add sugar, red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, longans, hazelnuts, raisins, red beans, peanuts, water caltrops, roseleaf and other various materials to make the porridge special.