When is Laba?

Laba Festival is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year.

"Don't be greedy, children. This is the year after Laba. " Laba Festival, commonly known as Laba. From this day on, people began to buy new year's goods to welcome the upcoming Spring Festival.

Laba Festival, formerly known as the ancient twelfth lunar month, is an important year-end sacrifice day in ancient times. The twelfth lunar month did not have a fixed cycle at first, and it was not fixed until the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Eating Laba porridge is an important custom of Laba Festival. There are many legends about Laba porridge among the people, among which the story of "a shepherdess offering chyle" in Buddhism is widely spread. Legend has it that Sakyamuni ate porridge cooked by a shepherd girl on Laba Festival and became a Buddha under a bodhi tree. People who believe in Buddhism in later generations will hold chanting activities every Laba Festival and cook porridge for the Buddha to benefit the public. So "Laba porridge" is also called "Buddha porridge".