Me & City (Suzhou, China)

In China, we call the last month(12th) of the lunar Calendar La Yue, the server winter, and the Laba festival is on the eighth day of the month, exactly today!

According to the legend, people used to worship ancestors and pray for a plentiful of harvest & good fortune on the 8th day of  La Yue since the pre-Qin history. It is also said that the day of Laba is on which Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, realized the truth or philosophic theory after cultivating for 6 years under a pipal tree in an extremely arduous situation.

Chinese have a tradition of eating Laba rice porridge on that day wishing good luck for more than one thousand years, dates back Song dynasty. Laba porridge, tastes naturally sweet, is made up of a variety of fresh grains, nut meat and fruits which is harvested during the same year.  The main materials of Laba porridge is rice, usually polished round-grained rice, glutinous rice and seed of Job’s tears are preferred.  There is a wide range of colorful ingredients for Laba porridge, including peanut meat, dates, walnut meat, lotus seeds, small red beans, soy beans, chestnut meat, dried longan pulp, etc.  Add anything else if you want to be creative!

Have a bowl of hot Laba porridge in such a super cold day will be so enjoyable:)  You really can’t  miss it, and the good fortune!!

You might also be interested in reading:

1. Happy 2009 Mid-Autumn festival
2. Happy Winter Solstice Eve!
3. Happy Double Ninth Festival
4. Sipo Bridge
5. One sentence for Suzhou