腊八节喝腊八粥的习俗英文作文

腊八节喝腊八粥的习俗英文作文

Tomorrow is the eighth day of the 12th lunar month on the traditional Chinese calendar. It is also the Laba Festival, in Chinese, Laba means ‘gold eighth’ and refers to the traditional start of celebrations for the Chinese New Year.

On this day a special hot rice porridge, called Laba Zhou, is eaten, which contains glutinous rice, red beans, millet, Chinese sorghum, peas and some other ingredients, such as dried dates, chestnut meat, walnut meat, almond, peanut, dried lotus seeds and etc. Eating porridge on Laba is believed to bring good fortune in the New Year. The flavor varies from place to place, in the North, it is a dessert with sugar added; in the South, salt and seasonal vegetables are put in.

This tradition has its roots in the Buddhist faith. It is said when Sakyamuni left home and strived for virtue, he fainted on the way because of hunger and tiredness. A shepherdess passing by saved him and cooked for him some porridge with glutinous rice and nuts. Then Sakyamuni sat under a bodhi tree in meditation and found Buddhism. So later the believers formed the habit of cooking Laba Zhou to commemorate it.