Mandarin learning courses in the city of Kunming will show you a tradition in China. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, tradition has it that Han people in China often eat porridge or rice with nuts and dried fruits.
Fu Cha Dun Chong, a writer during Qing Dynasty, described in his famous book—Years of Yanjing to those who come from school to study Mandarin in China, that this special porridge was made from water, yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water caltrop kernel, walnut, red beans and peeled date and it was decorated with walnut meat, apricots, peanuts, sugar and raisins.
There is also a history about La Ba Porridge showed by Chinese teachers from Chinese language school in Yunnan province. Both rice and porridge are the historical heritage of Winter Sacrifice (an ancient activity which became Spring Festival later). According to the description of ancient books, the Winter Sacrifice means to integrate all the twelve months and people should collect all kinds of food to make them sacrifice.
Therefore, the porridge with nuts and dried fruits consists of food from all parts of the country and cooked with rice, which means to integrate all things and spirits in the world. Combined with the traditional health-preserving cultural of China you know while having intensive Mandarin course in China, this kind of porridge is regarded as an excellent example of healthy food.
Later, with the gradual popularity of Buddhism, the day of Winter Sacrifice was thought to be the day when Buddha Sakyamuni became a Buddha. This is why there are some people from Mandarin language courses in China believe that porridge with nuts and dried fruits comes from India.
Something about the Winter Sacrifice should also be introduced in Chinese school to study in China. In the ancient times, the emperors would hold a significant ceremony to offer sacrifices to eight gods of nature, in the end of a year, which is called the Winter Sacrifice. This ceremony was later became a custom of the ordinary. The left influence of this tradition is the fact that on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in the south must have rice with nuts and dried fruits and those in the north must eat porridge with nuts and dried fruits.
school in Kunming to study Chinese will also show you’re a history of La Ba Porridge in China. Since the Qing Dynasty, the festival of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month has been for offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors and praying for a good harvest and prosperity of the coming year.
The custom of having porridge with nuts and dried fruits on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month you knew when you came to study in China was quite popular in the Song Dynasty. On that very day, all people would cook this kind of porridge, no matter whether they were emperors, officials, monks or ordinary people. In the Qing Dynasty, it became even more favored by local people.
Another version of the story why local Kunming people had La Ba porridge with nuts and dried fruits on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month should also be shared when you study Chinese in Kunming. The story came from a family lived at the foot of Kunming Tai Hua Mountain. Two old couple in the family lived a happy and rich life, but they did not spend money on things they did not need to buy.
When their son grew up, he did not want to learn anything, and he had nothing to do all day long. What could he do to make a living is the question everybody from classes when they came to learn Mandarin in Kunming would ask. The old couple figures out a way to educate their son, and it was to find a wife to him.
However, the wife they found was as lazy as their son. After the old couple died, their son and daughter- in- law lived a hard and terrible life. They used up all the money left by their parents, and one year later, they had nothing to eat any more. They put all the things they had into the pot and made them into porridge. When they was about to eat, a wind came and pushed down their house. They were died in the terrible wind, and local people could only find porridge in their house. In order to educate their children, local people made porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which was the La Ba porridge you knew when you traveled to learn Chinese in China, and asked their kids to eat. When you come to study Chinese in the city of Kunming, you can try the famous La Ba porridge.