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Home >> Shanghai >> Article
When Laba comes, Spring Festival isn’t far behind
By:Wu Qiong  |  From:english.eastday.com  |  2019-01-15 09:46

In China, the Laba Festival this year falls on January 13. As a traditional Chinese festival celebrated by the Han ethnic group, who make up the vast majority of Chinese, the festival is regarded as the prelude to the Chinese Spring Festival.

To celebrate that day, people will have Laba porridge made from different kinds of rice, beans, and dried nuts. Though Laba porridge is also auspiciously named “eight-treasure porridge” it does not have to be cooked from eight ingredients. However, three materials are essential for a traditional Laba porridge: red dates, Job’s tears and water caltrop. As the tradition goes, the porridge has to be prepared one day in advance and eaten on the morning of the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, so as to ward off evil spirits.  

The origin of this festivity varies. One holds that over 3,000 years ago, sacrificial rites called La were held in the 12th lunar month when people offered prayers to the gods of heaven and earth. The Chinese characters for prey and the 12th month were interchangeable then, and ever since La has been used to refer to both. Since the festival was held on the 8th day of the last lunar month, people later appended the number eight, giving us the current Laba.
In Shanghai, some temples and traditional stores will offer free Laba porridge to citizens. Over the past weekend, various events took place to celebrate the Laba Festival.

Date: Jan. 13
Place: Songjiang Fangta Park
Starting from 8am, the park offered 1,000 bowls of Laba porridge to citizens and tourists in front of the Tianfei Palace.

Time: 2pm-4pm, Jan. 13
Place: Jinshanzui Fishing Village
Calligraphers Tang Jianping and Zhang Jieming, as well as calligraphy lovers, gathered in Jinshanzui, the last fishing village in Shanghai. Together they wrote Spring Festival couplets and the Chinese character “Fu” (“福”, which means luck and happiness) in the hope of beckoning a happy Chinese Lunar New Year. In a teahouse, free Laba porridge was offered by Wanshou Temple. The ingredients of the congee included glutinous rice, red beans, red dates, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo, and lotus seeds.
 

Time: 1:30pm-4pm, Jan. 13
Place: Gucun Park
At the Jiuzhou Academy in Gucun Park, people were invited to taste a cup of eight-treasure tea consisting of a special blend of eight ingredients. Besides fragrant tealeaves, there were rock sugar, rose petals, goji berries, dates, walnuts, longan meat, sesame seeds, raisins, and dried apple slices. The tea is good for nourishing the lungs and the yin energy in the body, and has an effect of clearing the throat. 

 

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