More than 4,000 Beijingers and visitors queued up on Tuesday in
the chilly wind for a bowl of steaming porridge served by monks at
a lamasery in the capital to observe China's traditional porridge
serving day.
Thirty giant caldrons of "Laba Porridge", which is made from
dozens of ingredients, were served in the Yonghe Lamasery in north
Beijing on the Laba Festival today.
"It only takes 10 minutes for one caldron of porridge to be
given away because people are so enthusiastic about the tradition,"
said a monk.
"I queue up here every year to get a bowl of Laba porridge. It
has become an annual routine for me," said a person in the
queue.
The tradition of drinking the porridge, which is cooked with
fresh paddy and fruits on the Laba Festival, is observed throughout
China every year.
Millions of Chinese housewives get up early to toil through the
day to prepare sundry ingredients to make the treat.
"I would bother to keep myself fully occupied today because a
bowl of Laba porridge would not only bring luck and prosperity, but
also connect the whole family," said Yu Li, a 72-year-old living in
Beijing.
"I want to observe the tradition, just as I have been doing
since my childhood," she said.
But the young generation in China seem to be too busy to
maintain the tradition.
"It will be too time-consuming to make the Laba porridge and I
don't have time to queue in Yonghe Lamasery. I just treat today as
an ordinary day," said a local journalist surnamed Li.
The Laba Festival is regarded as a prelude to the Spring
Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, the most important occasion of
family reunion, which falls on Feb. 7 this year.
Legend has it that when Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, fell
unconscious from hunger and exhaustion during his journey to find
virtue, he was saved by a passing shepherdess who fed him
porridge.
The gesture saved Sakyamuni who then went on to become Buddha on
the eighth day of the 12 lunar month which falls on Friday this
year. Laba literally means the eighth day of 12th lunar month.
The ancient Yonghe Lamasery used to serve porridge to the royal
family, as well as to Buddhists and the poor.
The traditional recipe of porridge includes a mixture of
different types of rice, millet, chestnuts, red jujubes, lotus
seeds, red beans and other ingredients, including sugar.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2008)
