Short Cross of Blessings for Laba Porridge

The short cross blessing for Laba porridge is as follows:

1. Spoonfuls of wishful sugar, grains of lucky rice.

2. Warm beans and deep blessings.

Laba porridge, also known as "Seven Treasures and Five Flavors Porridge", "Buddha Porridge", "Everyone's Rice", etc., is a kind of porridge made from a variety of ingredients. "Drinking Laba porridge" is a custom during the Laba Festival. The traditional ingredients of Laba porridge include rice, millet, corn, barley, red dates, lotus seeds, peanuts, longan and various beans.

The custom of drinking "Laba porridge" on Laba day began in the Song Dynasty. Xu Ke's "Qing Bailei Chao" says: "Laba porridge began in the Song Dynasty. On the eighth day of December, the major temples in Tokyo used the seven treasures and five flavors and glutinous rice to make porridge. It has been followed to this day, and others are imitating it."

Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu" of the Southern Song Dynasty records: "On the eighth day of this month, the temple calls it Laba porridge. Temples such as Dasha and other temples all have five-flavor porridge, which is called Laba porridge."

Source of Laba porridge:

Laba customs are also influenced by Buddhism. According to legend, the Buddha Sakyamuni practiced hard for six years before becoming a Buddha. He only ate very little food every day and became very weak. Two shepherds by the Nilian River After seeing this, the woman gave the Buddha some chyle made from cow's milk to eat, which restored his energy. From this, the Buddha realized that practicing hard will not lead to Buddhahood.

He walked to the Nilian River to bathe and wash clothes, and then came to Bodh Gaya under a Bodhi tree. After sitting for forty-eight days, he became enlightened and became a Buddha on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Therefore, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month has become an important Buddhist festival. Believers bathe the Buddha and eat Laba porridge to express their commemoration of the Buddha.