LabaFestival foods

ThelabaFestival, which falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, marks the official start of the Spring Festival.

The two most important traditions associated withlabaFestival are eating laba porridge, and praying for peace and good health in the coming year.

Filled with nuts and dried fruit, laba porridge serves as a symbol of good fortune, long life, and fruitful harvest. Buddhist tradition equates porridge with good fortune. Friends, family, and neighbors customarily exchange gifts ofLabaporridge to express good wishes. In the past, devout Buddhists presented gifts of laba porridge to the emperor and local officials. It can be seen thatlabaporridge was a favorite holiday gift not only among the rulers and bureaucracy of feudal China, but also in every strata of society.

The custom of eatinglabaporridge is not only an expression of respect for Buddha and the ancestral spirits. Laba porridge is also a very nourishing and healthful food. It can "increase the life force, produces saliva, nourishe the spleen and stomach, and resolve sweating due to weak constitution at health," according to the encyclopedic classic of herbal medicine Bencao Gangmu, eminent Ming Dynasty physician Li Shizhen.