The Laba Festival
Happy new year and happy Laba festival! Yes, today January 2nd it’s a traditional Chinese festivity called Laba (腊八节). Laba means the 8th (ba) day of the 12th month (which in the Chinese lunar calendar is called la). According to Wikipedia, the Laba festival didn’t use to have a fixed date and it was a celebration of the new harvest. However, since the spread of Buddhism in China during the Han dynasty (first century CE), the festivity was attached to this religion and got the 8th day of the 12th month as its official day to commemorate the enlightenment of the Buddha. According to my mother in law, though, it celebrates the start of winter and she says the real cold will start now (maybe she will allow me to turn on the hot aircon during the day now).
Baidu’s doodle for today’s holiday (yes, Baidu copies Google in everything).
Laba festival papercut.
This festival is not a holiday in the sense of not having to work, though; today is still a working day. But there are some customs around this day and the main one is to eat laba congee, a sweet rice congee with ingredients like peanuts, goji berries, red dates, Job’s tears and red beans, among others. Another custom is that Buddhist temples cook huge pots of this congee and give it away for free! My MIL’s sister is a volunteer in Suzhou’s Xiyuan temple and yesterday we went to pick our rations. Traffic around the temple was absolutely crazy but my MIL got her reward: 12 bowls of laba congee. She gave half to her neighbours and now we will be eating congee for a couple of days.
My lunch today: laba congee. It was yummy but I’m afraid it might have too much sugar as it was really sweet.
Xiyuan temple. This picture is from the last Chinese New Year, when I visited it for the first time.
But we only got it yesterday because of my MIL’s sister; the people with no relatives inside the temple have to pick it today. I found some pictures in a Suzhou newspaper about the preparation of the congee:
The different ingredients.
The huge pot.
The packing section (I wanted to bring my own jars but I was told they don’t give it directly from the pot but already packed, meh).
Laba festival is also the last traditional festivity before Spring Festival or the Chinese New Year… the countdown has officially started now! The Year of the Rat will start on January 25!
Happy Laba Festival! I didn’t know such a day existed. Laba congee sounds really yummy though!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
It seems it’s only celebrated in the north of China and the Yangtze river area! If it was celebrated in Guangdong I’m sure HK would have it too.
So when do folks living near you start putting out Chinese New Year decorations?
Mmmm to be honest I don’t think people put up Chinese New Year decorations at home… only the luck character and some auspicious sentences written on red paper are pasted on the front door. That is done usually a few days before the new year starts (we do it on new year’s eve).
Happy Laba! And Happy New Year!
You can keep the pot and reuse it! The cold starts here in January too until about mid February. Not as cold as China, but cold for here. The humidity bites :(
I’m all for reusing but I have so many tupper ware and pots at home that I cannot fit more -_- The reuse/avoid plastic waste trend has not reached China yet, on the contrary, every day there must be tons of plastic waste from takeaway drinks and delivery meals…
Humidity here is bollocks. Every winter I have mildew or mold, no idea what it is, growing on the frigging walls and on stored clothes and bags… Did you know mildew/mold can grow on synthetic materials? I didn’t and know I do.
I had a mould/mildew problems in France. I had to dilute bleach it every month as the black mould can cause health issues. Especially respiratory.
I get you in plastic pots. Thankfully here’s being more aware. But my local supermarket where I use my cotton produce bags now have their own version: polyester mesh bags 🤦♀️ or they look polyester. I haven’t touched them yet, but they look it. I can’t even say it’s a start. I’ll get back to you when I next go if they are. Yesterday Barcelona introduced its anti car congestion zone. A good thing as I’m sure car pollution along with the radio waves from wifi had something to do with the cats health issues
Throw away any synthetic material with it on. I’m sure even if you wash it it’s still on there. The only thing that really kills it is bleach and that comes with its own issues. Once the damp is in the walls it’s hard to get rid off too as you know! You can get anti mould paint I think but I think that’s just a seal not addressing the source.
We have some spray thing that smells like bleach and kills it momentarily… but it always comes back. Especially in the room that faces north!
Noooo!
Thx for this. I had no idea about this special annual event.
And happy new year. Live 2020 well. It only happens once in our lifetime!
Hahaha, yes. And it will be the best 2020 we ever have!
How interesting. Love learning new things about China. Thanks Marta.
Also, this congee is vegan hehe!
Yay. Love congee.