China News Service, Beijing, January 18 (Liu Yang) At the end of the year and in the cold winter, a bowl of hot porridge will melt away the ice.
As soon as the Laba Festival arrives, every household begins the prelude to the "busy year".
Many overseas Chinese connected with reporters from China News Service on the 18th to talk about the tender moments in their memories.
Batel, a Russian overseas Chinese, and his family prepared the ingredients for "Valerari" early in the morning.
Bater is a Daur nationality. His hometown is Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province. He later went to Russia to engage in tourism and international trade.
In his mind, Laba Festival is a day when families gather together to drink and talk.
"Walelari" is the Laba porridge of the Daur people.
The Daur people stir together milk, yogurt and yellow rice, simmer it over slow fire for more than half an hour until the porridge is thick, and then mix it with milk or cream before eating it.
"'Wallerari' is sour and sweet, which means sweetness and happiness. It is an irreplaceable food on the Laba Festival table." Battelle said that after having a full meal, everyone sang folk songs and prayed for peace and success in the coming year.
Speaking of Laba porridge, Romanian overseas Chinese Yang Yaozhong was most impressed by the scene when he and his parents queued up to drink porridge at the temple when he was a child.
The masters of Xiaoputuo Temple in Yanguan, Haining, Zhejiang Province, start preparing porridge early in the morning and offer blessings to people who come.
"It has become our custom to go to the temple to drink porridge. If you go late, you won't be able to drink it. Before dawn, my parents would wake me up and queue up to wait for the temple to open." Yang Yaozhong remembers that the eight-treasure porridge in the temple is made of rice. , jujube, white fungus, red bean, yam, lily, peanut and longan.
"Begging" for a bowl of Laba porridge adds confidence, good luck and blessings.
When he was young, he didn't understand why it was so "troublesome", but after many years away from home, he also missed the scene of everyone's lively "adding blessings".
Yang Yaozhong said that at the Red Dragon Wholesale Market in Romania, some Zhejiang overseas Chinese businessmen in the catering industry would also cook Laba porridge and distribute it to overseas Chinese, using a bowl of porridge to connect nostalgia and memories.
Overseas Chinese in Romania attach great importance to traditional festivals. Cooking and sharing porridge also means that business people will be prosperous together in the coming year.
"Carrots, honey is sweet, I'm thinking about celebrating the New Year, but I have no money." This is a song that Wang Xinghua often sang during the Laba Festival when he was young.
Wang Xinghua is 50 years old this year. Since he left home to work in Turkey in 1997, he has almost never returned to his hometown to celebrate the Laba Festival with his family.
"My hometown is in Tongjiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province. It is located in a remote area. When I was a child, my family was poor. Every Laba Festival, my mother would put more beans in the white porridge. The happiest thing was that I could add more beans to the bowl when drinking porridge. A spoonful of sugar." Wang Xinghua said that on this day, the mother and sister at home make tofu, kill New Year pigs, make bacon, pack sausages, and clean the house to prepare for the new year.
Wang Xinghua recalled that what he looked forward to most during the holidays were the new cloth shoes and insoles made for him by his mother or sister.
Wearing new shoes means going smoothly and far in the coming year.
Now that his mother has passed away, his sisters no longer make handmade shoes, but the pairs of cloth shoes and the porridge with sugar have closely connected him with his relatives in his hometown.
"Although the past is far away, the memory is still very warm. I wish everyone can taste 'blessing' on the tip of their tongues and be happy in the coming year." Wang Xinghua said.
(over)