What is the origin of Laba Festival on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month?

Laba Festival, commonly known as Laba, refers to the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Laba Festival is a festival to worship ancestors and gods and pray for good harvest and good luck. According to legend, this day is the day when Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, became a monk and founded Buddhism under the bodhi of Buddha, that is, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so it is also called "Buddhist and Taoist Festival".

In China, Laba Festival has the custom of drinking Laba porridge and soaking Laba garlic. In Henan and other places, Laba porridge is also called "everyone's meal". It is a holiday food custom to commemorate the national hero Yue Fei.

Laba Festival originated from people's memory of Yue Fei, a loyal minister. At that time, Yue Fei led troops to resist gold in Zhuxian town, which was in the severe winter of September. Yue Jiajun had no food and clothing, was hungry and cold, and the people sent porridge one after another. Yue Jiajun had a hearty meal of "thousand porridge" sent by the people, and the result was a great victory. It was the eighth day of December. After Yue Fei's death, in order to commemorate him, people cooked porridge with miscellaneous grains and beans on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which finally became a custom.