Laba Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It’s a day for celebrating harvest, offering sacrifices to ancestors, and worshiping gods. But above all, it is a day for cooking Laba Congee, a hodgepodge of grains, beans and dried fruits used to invoke peace and good fortune.
农历十二月初八是中国的传统节日——腊八节，在这一天人们庆祝丰收、祭祀祖先、拜神。最重要的是，在这一天人们要做由各种谷物、豆类和干果熬成的腊八粥以祈求来年和平及好运。
Chinese people believe that eating congee during Laba festival will bring good luck. Laba Congee is infused with Chinese people’s beautiful expectations of a happy life.
中国人相信腊八节喝腊八粥会带来好运，腊八粥充满着中国人民对幸福生活的美丽期望。
Folktales abound as to the origins of eating congee during Laba Festival. According to the most famous one, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (reigned 1368-1399), used to herd cattle for a rich man. One day, his carelessness caused a leg of one of the cows to be broken. The rich man was so angry that he locked up the culprit in a small room and didn’t allow food to be given to him. After some time, the famished Zhu Yuanzhang found in a corner of the room a rat hole that contained a supply of stolen red beans, rice, red dates and other produce. These he boiled into congee, on which he feasted voluptuously. Because that day was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang named the congee Laba Congee.
关于腊八节喝粥的起源，民间故事比比皆是。最著名的一个,明朝的开国皇帝朱元璋(1368 - 1399年在位)，小时候给财主放牛，因牛腿摔断被财主关在一间屋子里，不给他饭吃， 过了一段时间，快要饿死的朱元璋在屋子的角落里发现了一个老鼠洞，从中挖掘出红豆、大米、红枣等各种粮食，煮成粥食用，觉得非常香甜。因为这一天是农历的十二月八日,皇帝朱元璋将它命名为腊八粥。
