[Explanation] December 30th is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which is the traditional Chinese festival Laba Festival.
Drinking Laba porridge is one of the traditional customs of Laba Festival.
Laba porridge has a long history, and after evolution, coupled with local characteristics, it has gradually become more colorful. So how do you eat Laba porridge everywhere?
What's the point?
[Concurrent] Tang Zhiqiang, Secretary-General of the 24 Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance
In fact, Laba porridge has added local characteristics in various places.
Laba porridge in Beijing is the most particular, and there can be as many as twenty kinds of things added, even roses.
And it is also very particular about the cooking process. It will be stewed in the middle of the night with a low heat, and the porridge will not be cooked until the next morning.
In Ningxia in the northwest, when they make Laba porridge, they add diamond-shaped leaves cut from buckwheat noodles.
When making Laba porridge in northern Shaanxi, some dried fruits, tofu and meat will be added.
In some areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, water chestnuts are their local characteristics.
Sichuan Laba porridge has a special feature, it adds white radish and carrot.
For Laba porridge in Henan, it needs to be added with sugar, and brown sugar is added to make it sweeter.
[Explanation] In addition to eating Laba porridge, folks around the world also have festival food customs such as soaking Laba garlic, eating Laba noodles, and drying Laba tofu.
[Concurrent] Tang Zhiqiang, Secretary-General of the 24 Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance
Some folks in Anhui know how to make Laba tofu, and every household makes tofu in the sun at this time.
You are like us in some places in the north. He makes Laba noodles, and various fruits and vegetables are made into dumplings, and then the noodles are rolled out. On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family eats Laba noodles together.
A very characteristic food is Laba Garlic in Beijing.
In some areas of North China, garlic is soaked in vinegar on Laba Day. If you eat it after the Spring Festival or at this time, it will be delicious.
[Explanation] As the saying goes: "Passing Laba is the new year." Passing Laba means the beginning of the New Year.
Therefore, the Laba Festival also embodies people's good wishes to pray for a good harvest and auspiciousness at the end of the year.
[Concurrent] Tang Zhiqiang, Secretary-General of the 24 Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance
Laba was originally a day of worship, praying for heaven, earth and ancestors to pray for blessings and longevity, avoid disasters and welcome prosperity.
To worship the ancestors, worship the door god, the kitchen god, the earth god, the god of wealth and the granary, to pray for good weather and a good harvest in the coming year.
The next twenty days will be the Spring Festival, so on this day of Laba, if you drink a bowl of sweet and delicious Laba porridge, then the taste of the year will become stronger day by day, which also indicates that the coming year will be prosperous.
Dong Yufei reports from Beijing
Editor in charge: [Sun Jingbo]