Laba Rice Porridge Festival

By 全日制5级班 马春瑜

In the Pre-Qin period, China had set the point of the Laba Rice Porridge Festival, which was on the third Xu Day after Winter Solstice. Later, as being impacted by Buddhism, the time was fixedly set on December 8 according to the lunar calendar in the southern and northern dynasties period.

At that time, the Laba Rice Porridge Festival was called La Day on this day, the ancients offered sacrifice to ancestors and gods, praying for a huge harvest, peace and safety in the coming year. They also ate red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil things, it’s all because they believed that driving away ghosts was a method of curing diseases.

On this festival, the custom of eating laba rice porridge can date back to the Song Dynasty, about more than 1000 years ago. every year when this day came, laba rice porridge would be made in dynasty court, yamens, temples and common people families. Down to the Qing Dynasty, this custom was pretty popular. On this day, the emperor, the empress and the princes would give laba rice porridge to ladies-in-waiting, civil and military officials as rewards, they also handed rice and fruits out to monks in each temple. Of course, every common people family would make laba rice porridge to worship their ancestors.

Nowadays, most regions of China keep the custom of eating laba rice porridge on this festival. The laba rice porridge is made from eight kinds of fresh produce, nuts and fruits, such as rice, red dates, peanuts, walnuts, longan and so on. All ingredients are boiled with sugar. However, in central plain of China, many families like to eat salty laba rice porridge, so they add tofu, meat, cabbage, sea tangle and the like into it. Before eating, family members should get together to celebrate the festival and worship their ancestors first, then sit together to eat and five wishes to each other.

点评: 这篇文章的亮点在于学生对于腊八节的360度无死角了解!开篇处告知我们腊八节的历史意义和民族风俗,后半段又说明了当今人们的庆祝方式,并且还很细致的分为南北方两地风俗来描写!另外,文章中的长句和高级语法修辞的运用也是一大特色!