In ancient China, emperors and rulers performed sacrificial rites with dried offerings to deities during the twelfth lunar month. This wax sacrifice later spread to the common people, and remnants of the custom persist today: on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in the south eat Laba rice, while those in the north drink Laba porridge. Since pre-Qin times, the Laba Festival has been dedicated to honoring ancestors and deities, praying for bountiful harvests and good fortune.The custom of drinking Laba porridge became widespread in China during the Song Dynasty. On Laba Day, Laba porridge was prepared everywhere—from the imperial court and government offices to monasteries and commoners' homes. By the Qing Dynasty, this tradition reached its peak.At court, the emperor, empress, and imperial princes would bestow Laba congee upon civil and military officials and palace attendants, while distributing rice and fruits to monasteries for monks' consumption. In the countryside, every household prepared Laba congee to honor ancestors; families gathered to share it together and exchanged portions as gifts to relatives and friends. The twelfth lunar month, traditionally called "Laxue" (腊月), is known as the "Laxue Festival."It is said that after Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China, he decreed that the twelfth month be renamed "Laxue." The term "Laxue" itself first appeared formally during the Han Dynasty.
The history of drinking Laba porridge in China, as documented in written records, spans over a thousand years, dating back at least to the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, whether in the imperial court, government offices, monasteries, or commoners' homes, Laba porridge was prepared.During the Ming Dynasty, ingredients like glutinous rice, ginkgo nuts, walnut kernels, and chestnuts were added to the porridge. By the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became even more prevalent. At court, the emperor, empress, and imperial princes would bestow Laba porridge upon civil and military officials and palace attendants, while also distributing rice and fruits to monasteries for monks to consume.In folk traditions, every household prepared Laba porridge to honor ancestors. Families gathered to share the meal together and exchanged portions with relatives and friends. The renowned Laba porridge from Yonghe Temple featured not only glutinous rice and millet but also diced lamb and cream. The porridge surface was garnished with red dates, longan, walnut kernels, raisins, melon seeds, and candied red and green fruit strips.More Laba Congee Recipes>>
While the Laba Festival is widely recognized, few are familiar with its legends.
Legend One: Originating from the "Red Bean Ghost-Busting" Custom
Legend holds that Zhuanxu, one of the Five Emperors of ancient China, had three sons who turned into malevolent spirits after death, terrorizing children.Ancient people widely believed in superstitions and feared ghosts and spirits. They attributed illnesses and poor health in adults and children to the mischief of epidemic spirits during the Laba Festival. These malevolent spirits feared nothing but red beans, hence the saying "red beans ward off ghosts." Therefore, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people would boil porridge with red beans to ward off epidemics and welcome good fortune.
Legend Two: Mourning Laborers Starved to Death at the Great Wall Construction Site
During Qin Shi Huang's Great Wall construction, laborers from across the land were conscripted. Unable to return home for years, they relied on food supplies sent by their families. For some laborers, their homes lay beyond mountains and rivers, making food delivery impossible. Many starved to death at the construction site.On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month one year, starving laborers pooled their last handfuls of grains into a pot of thin porridge. Each drank a bowl before ultimately perishing beneath the Great Wall. To commemorate these workers, people have eaten "Laba porridge" on this day ever since.
Legend Three: Originating from India
Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born as the son of King Suddhodana of Kapilavastu (present-day Nepal) in ancient northern India. Witnessing the suffering of all beings—birth, aging, sickness, and death—and dissatisfied with the Brahminical theocracy of his time, he renounced his royal inheritance to pursue spiritual enlightenment.Initially finding no enlightenment, after six years of asceticism, he attained Buddhahood under the Bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During those six years of austerities, he subsisted on only one sesame seed and one grain of rice daily. To remember his suffering, people later ate porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month each year. "Laba" thus became the "Buddha's Enlightenment Commemoration Day."Laba is a major Buddhist festival. Before liberation, temples nationwide held Buddha-bathing ceremonies and scripture recitations. Following the legend of a shepherdess offering milk porridge to Shakyamuni before his enlightenment, they cooked congee with fragrant grains and fruits as an offering, known as "Laba congee." This congee was distributed to disciples and devout followers, later becoming a widespread folk custom.It is said that some temples would send monks out before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, holding alms bowls to beg for offerings along the streets. The collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts, and other ingredients were then cooked into Laba porridge and distributed to the poor. Legend holds that eating this porridge would bring the Buddha's blessings, so the poor called it "Buddha's porridge." The Southern Song Dynasty poet Lu You wrote: "Today Buddha's porridge is shared anew, Making the riverside village feel fresh and new."It is said that Hangzhou's renowned Tianning Temple housed a "Rice Storage Tower" where monks dried leftover rice daily. Accumulating a year's surplus, they cooked it into Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to distribute to devotees. This was called "Fortune and Longevity Porridge" or "Blessing and Virtue Porridge," signifying that eating it would increase blessings and extend life. This reflects the monks' virtue of cherishing food during that era.
Legend Four: Teaching the Younger Generation to Manage the Household with Diligence and Thrift
During the Western Jin Dynasty, there lived an extremely lazy young man who idled away his days, squandering his family's resources.His newlywed wife repeatedly urged him to change, but to no avail. By the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the household ran out of food. Starving, the young man searched every rice bin, flour sack, and jar in the house. He gathered every last grain and scrap of edible residue, washed them, and boiled them into a thick porridge. After consuming it, he was overcome with remorse and resolved to reform his ways.Local people used this story to teach their children, so every Laba Festival they would cook porridge. This both honored the virtue of diligence and frugality passed down from ancestors on the ancestral sacrifice day and expressed hopes for a bountiful year brought by the gods.
Legend Five: Honoring the Loyal General Yue Fei
During the bitter winter of Yue Fei's campaign against the Jin at Zhuxian Town, his troops faced starvation and freezing conditions. Local villagers brought them porridge, and after feasting on this "porridge of a thousand households," Yue Fei's army returned victorious.This occurred on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. After Yue Fei's death, the people commemorated him by boiling congee with mixed grains, beans, and fruits on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, a custom that endured.
Legend Six: Laba Congee Saved Zhu Yuanzhang's Life
It is said that when the future Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, his family was very poor, so he worked as a cowherd for a wealthy landowner.One day while returning from herding, he crossed a log bridge. The ox slipped and fell off the bridge, breaking its leg. The old wealthy man flew into a rage, locked him in a room, and refused to feed him. Starving, Zhu Yuan Zhang suddenly spotted a mouse hole in the room. Peering inside, he found a mouse's granary filled with rice, beans, and red dates.He combined these ingredients into a pot of porridge, which proved deliciously sweet and satisfying. Years later, after becoming emperor, Zhu recalled this memory and ordered his royal chefs to prepare a similar porridge blending various grains and beans. The day he ate it happened to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, hence the name "Laba Congee."