The eighth day of the last month
The Laba Festival falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which usually lands in January of the Gregorian calendar. The name comes from the words for “twelfth month” (la) and “eight” (ba). Because the twelfth month is the last of the lunar year, Laba is often treated as the starting gun for the New Year countdown. The traditional saying that the New Year begins to feel close after Laba is heard in many families, though how seriously people take it varies by region and household.
The exact date depends on the lunisolar calendar, so it shifts from year to year relative to January 1.
Laba porridge
The best-known custom is eating Laba porridge, a thick, sweet or lightly sweet congee made from many ingredients simmered together. There is no single official recipe. Cooks commonly combine rice, glutinous rice, millet, beans, and dried fruit and nuts such as red dates, lotus seeds, peanuts, walnuts and longans. Some places add dried persimmon or chestnuts. In some regions, savory versions are made instead.
The idea of mixing many grains and beans symbolizes abundance and a good harvest. Many families start soaking the beans the night before, then cook the porridge slowly for hours. Neighbors and relatives sometimes exchange bowls, and temples have traditionally handed out porridge to visitors.
Why the day is linked to Buddhism
Laba is also tied to the Chinese Buddhism tradition. A widely repeated account says that this is the day the Buddha reached enlightenment, and that before this a girl offered him a meal of milk gruel. Because of this association, monasteries have long cooked porridge on this day. Other accounts describe older roots, including winter sacrifices to ancestors and spirits at the year’s end, and historians suggest that these customs may have blended over time. Because the early records are limited, it is safest to say that Laba combines Buddhist and older folk elements.
Laba garlic and other regional foods
In parts of northern China, people soak peeled garlic in vinegar on Laba. After a few weeks the garlic is said to turn a jade green, and it is eaten with dumplings around the New Year. The practice is a good example of a food custom shaped by wordplay and local habits; the vinegar-and-dumpling pairing is regional, not universal. Elsewhere, Laba may be marked with noodles, rice cakes or simply the porridge. Many urban families today buy ready-made porridge or skip the day entirely, which is one reason regional variety is better described as a range of habits than a single rule.
The weeks leading to the New Year
After Laba, there are roughly three weeks until the New Year, and traditionally a set of tasks fills them.
The Kitchen God. In many households, the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month, often called the Little New Year, was when the Kitchen God was sent off to report on the family to heaven. Families offered sweets, supposedly to make his report favorable or to sweeten his words, and then welcomed him back around the New Year. The date varies by region, and many modern families no longer perform the rite.
Cleaning. Households traditionally gave the home a thorough cleaning before the New Year, sweeping away dust, and by extension bad luck from the old year. Many people avoid sweeping during the first days of the new year itself, so that fortune is not swept away.
Settling and shopping. Debts were traditionally settled, new clothes bought, and special foods stocked, since shops were often closed for several days. Barbers were busy, as haircuts before the new year were common.
Decorating. Red paper couplets with poetic phrases were pasted on doorframes, and pictures and paper cutting designs were hung in windows. Many homes display the fortune character, sometimes upside down on purpose, because the word for “upside down” sounds like the word for “arrive”. Red is the dominant color, tied to ideas in color symbolism about luck and joy.
Gifts and envelopes. Families prepared red envelopes to give to children and sometimes to unmarried relatives, along with presents for older relatives.
Travel and the final countdown
For many modern families, the run-up also means travel. Millions of people working away from home head back to their hometowns, and the seasonal travel rush has become one of the largest regular human movements in the world. The aim is to arrive in time for the family meal on New Year’s Eve, the subject of the article on the reunion dinner.
Making sense of the sequence
The weeks between Laba and the New Year form a gradual build-up: an early food ritual, a mid-month farewell to the household deity, the cleaning and shopping, and then the arrival of the holiday itself. Details vary widely. A family in the north, a family in the far south, and a family living overseas will each keep a different subset of these customs. What they share is the sense that the old year must be closed properly before the new one begins, a theme described more fully in the discussion of the Chinese New Year.