Laba Festival () is a

traditional Chinese holiday The traditional Chinese holidays are an essential part of harvests or prayer offerings. The most important Chinese holiday is the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), which is also celebrated in overseas ethnic Chinese communities (for example in ...

celebrated on the eighth day of the month of La (or Layue 臘月), the twelfth month of the

Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar ��曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar ��曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar ��曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...

. It is the beginning of the

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () a ...

period. It is customary on this day to eat

Laba congee Laba congee () is a Chinese ceremonial congee dish traditionally eaten on the eighth day of the twelfth month in the Chinese calendar. The day on which it is traditionally eaten is commonly known as the Laba Festival. The earliest form of this d ...

. Laba Festival was not on a fixed day until the

Southern and Northern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as ...

, when it was influenced by Buddhism and was fixed on the eighth day of twelfth month, which was also the enlightenment day of the Buddha. Therefore, many customs of the Laba Festival are related to Buddhism. It corresponds directly to the Japanese Rohatsu and the South Asian

Bodhi Day Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni) is said to have attained enlightenment, also known as ''bodhi'' in Sanskrit and Pali. According to tradition, Siddhartha had recently forsaken years of ...

History

The Laba Festival's name represents its date on the

. ''La'' is the name of the twelfth and final month, and ''ba'' means "eight". In ancient China, the "eight" referred to making sacrifices to eight gods at the end of the year. In its original form, the festival was celebrated by making sacrifices to gods and ancestors to wish for good fortune, health, safety, and a good harvest in the new year. The word ''la'' originally referred to these sacrifices. After

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

spread to China during the first century CE, the festival was used as commemoration of

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

's enlightenment. It was given a fixed date (the eighth day of the twelfth month) during the

Northern and Southern dynasties The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered a ...

. During the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, ceremonies for the Laba festival were held at the Yonghe Temple in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

Customs

Laba Festival is considered the prelude to

, which falls about three weeks later. An old custom is beating drums to drive away diseases. This practice, which originated from ancient traditions of witchcraft, is still observed in places such as

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

, Hunan.

Laba congee

Traditionally, the consumption of

is an important element of the festival. This custom originates in the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

with Buddhist monasteries giving congee to people in honor of the story that

Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

(Gautama Buddha) reached enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth month after eating congee. Laba congee or Laba porridge () is very popular in many places in China. Different kinds of rice, beans, nuts and dried fruits are the main ingredients. People believe that it’s good for health in the winter. It is also known as "eight-treasure congee" () and is usually made with eight or more ingredients, representing good luck. Eight is a lucky number in China, and the ''ba'' in ''Laba'' also means eight. There are many variations of Laba congee in different regions of China; ingredients can include mixed grains, such as rice,

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets a ...

, and

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

; beans and nuts such as

mung beans The mung bean (''Vigna radiata''), alternatively known as the green gram, maash ( fa, ماش٫ )٫ mūng (), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract G ...

azuki beans ''Vigna angularis'', also known as the adzuki bean , azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately long) bean. The cultivars most familiar in East Asi ...

, lotus seeds, peanuts,

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

s, and

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrel ...

s; dried fruit such as red dates,

longan ''Dimocarpus longan'', commonly known as the longan () and dragon's eye, is a tropical tree species that produces edible fruit. It is one of the better-known tropical members of the soapberry family Sapindaceae, to which the lychee and rambu ...

, and goji berries; and other ingredients such as vegetables and meat.

Laba garlic

Another Laba food is

Laba garlic Laba, Łaba, or LABA may refer to: Places * Laba River, in Russia *Bolshaya Laba River, in Russia * Wadi Laba River, in Eritrea * Laba Forest, protected forest in Burkina Faso *Laba Township, in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Yunnan, China Peo ...

, which is particularly popular in northern China. ''Garlic'' in Chinese () has the same pronunciation as ''calculate'' (), and it is said that on the Laba Festival businesses should balance their books and calculate their revenues and expenditures for the year. Laba garlic is made by soaking garlic in

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

. Laba garlic is soaked in vinegar from the Laba Festival until

. The garlic and vinegar are then used alongside Chinese dumplings (''

jiaozi ''Jiaozi'' (; ; pinyin: jiǎozi) are Chinese dumplings commonly eaten in China and other parts of East Asia. ''Jiaozi'' are folded to resemble Chinese sycee and have great cultural significance attached to them within China. ''Jiaozi'' are ...

'') around Chinese New Year.

In popular culture

The festival is relevant to the plot of

Jin Yong Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), pronounced "Gum Yoong" in Cantonese, was a Chinese wuxia ("martial arts and chivalry") novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong da ...

's novel

Ode to Gallantry ''Ode to Gallantry'' () is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised in Hong Kong from 11 June 1966 to 19 April 1967 in the newspaper ''Ming Pao''. The novel shares the same Chinese title as a poem by the Tang dynasty poet ...

. In 2011, Google published a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

commemorating the festival.{{cite web, title=Laba Rice Porridge Festival 2011, url=https://www.google.com/doodles/laba-rice-porridge-festival-2011, accessdate=11 January 2015

References