Laba Festival

Laba 腊八 falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is the beginning of the New Year in the kitchen: the household starts the sweet-and-savoury porridge of the same name, laba congee, made with grains, beans, nuts and dried fruit, in proportions that every family defends. In Buddhist temples the porridge is given away. Garlic is put to vinegar for the New Year table.

The twelfth month (la) was the month of winter sacrifice; the eighth day of it is a marker more than a spectacle. There is no public holiday. From Laba the count to Chinese New Year is short, and the cleaning, the new clothes and the couplets follow.