China's Laba Rice Porridge Festival, on Dec 8 of the lunar calendar, is a day for people to get together to make a special cereal porridge, pray to Buddha, and eat with neighbors, as a religious celebration and a Buddhist tradition on Mount Wutai, Shanxi province, where the rice porridge is shared with pilgrims and tourists.

This year, it falls on Jan 27, when, just before dawn, disciples at every temple on the mountain set to work preparing the porridge, never mind the frigid weather, because it won't stop people from making their way up the mountain to enjoy some holy porridge.

The filled bowls with Laba Porridge, Jan 27 [Photo/wutaishan.city.sohu.com]

The significance of Dec 8 is that it was declared the day when Sakyamuni first grasped the truth of Buddhism after years of meditation. Disciples celebrated the day with a special porridge and sharing it with as many people as possible, especially the poor and starving, in a spirit of benevolence, a fundamental part of the religion. These days, people just like to have a taste of the porridge and generally praying for family peace and luck.

The day before the festival, the temples of Wutai do a thorough cleaning of the area, including the kitchen where they make the dish, usually from millet, coarse rice, beans, jujubes, peanuts and pine nuts. The mixture is put into a large copper cauldron where it simmers overnight. These days, the ingredients may vary to some degree, but traditions are still maintained, with the priests consecrating the dish in front of each statue, then chanting sutras while kneeling in front of Buddha.

A monk puts some porridge into the mouth of the stone lion with a spoon, Jan 27 [Photo/wutaishan.city.sohu.com]?

Another tradition is where people put some porridge in the mouth of the stone lions guarding the temples, a practice that has an interesting history. The tale goes like this: Buddhism calls for certain fixed rations for every monk and a fixed amount of food cooked for each meal. In the old days, some Buddhists found themselves short of cereal grains even though they kept an exact amount in a pot. To get to the source of this mystery, some monks put some porridge out in the courtyard, then hid themselves behind a door to watch and saw two lions run into the yard and start enjoying the dish. After that, for Laba, monks would offer some porridge to the stone lions. This is also meant to illustrate the love and care of Buddhism, not just for people but also for all the species of the earth.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw