Society

Laba heralds lunar new year's approach

By Cheng Yingqi and Li Xinzhu (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-12 08:32

BEIJING - Temples across the country celebrated the traditional Laba Festival by offering free porridge to the public on Tuesday, while many people also prepared the delicacy at home.

Related readings: Laba Festival  Free Laba Porridge in Beijing  Happy laba festival  Temples distribute free Laba porridge

This year's Laba Festival, which falls on the eighth day of the Chinese lunar calendar's 12th month, arrived on Tuesday.

Chinese have celebrated the festival since the Song Dynasty (960-1279) by eating a sweet porridge of rice, nuts, cereals and dried fruits - a blend symbolizing hopes of good fortune and plentiful harvests during the coming year.

Buddhist monks at the Yonghegong Lama Temple in Beijing began cooking the porridge early on Tuesday morning, as they have since the 18th century.

The first bowl was sacrificed before the temple's main Buddha statue, while the other 58 cauldrons were distributed to more than 3,000 believers and tourists, who had formed long lines outside the temple before it opened at 9 am.

Some residents brought their own pots so they could take porridge back to their families.

"I come here every year on the day of Laba, because I believe that taking the porridge from the temple can bless and protect me through the next year," a believer from Beijing, who declined to be named, said.

Similar activities were staged across the country. Religious institutions, such as Lingyin Temple in Zhejiang province, Shaolin Temple in Henan province and Jing'an Temple in Shanghai, served the delicacy to crowds for free.

Temples provided porridge to the poor in ancient China but now offer it to the public at large because it is believed to "represent Buddha's best wishes", a monk working in Jing'an Temple's kitchen said.

Many people opted to skip the long lines and make the celebratory meals at home.

"My husband and I don't like peanuts, so I use my own recipe," 62-year-old Shanghai resident Zhong Huilan said.

Stores nationwide increased stocks of Laba porridge ingredients last week.

Shanghai First Provisions Store employees said they had to restock the porridge ingredients counter five times on Tuesday.

The price of readymade rice mixes increased by 0.4 yuan (6 cents) a kilogram over last year's price.

However, as 55-year-old Beijing native Mo Li explained, eating porridge is only part of the celebration.

"After Laba, people clean their houses, paste spring couplets on their doors, prepare special festival cuisine and buy new clothes," she said.

"Actually, the regiment for the few weeks before the lunar new year's eve is quite rigorous."

Zhang Juan and Cang Wei contributed to this story.