What are the customs of Chinese New Year food?

　　Spring Festival food customs

　　Laba porridge - originally a religious festival food in Buddhism. "Eating Customs of the Chinese New Year" records: Before Sakyamuni became a Buddha, he traveled to the famous mountains and rivers of India in search of the true meaning of life. When he arrived in the Kingdom of Magadha in northern India, he fainted because he was tired and hungry. At this time, a shepherd girl saw this and hurriedly took out the lunch she had brought and fed Sakyamuni one bite after another. The shepherd girl's lunch is a mixture of various foods, including various wild fruits picked. After eating this delicious lunch, Sakyamuni regained his energy. Later, he took a bath in the Nilian River, sat under the Bodhi tree and meditated, and became a Buddha on the eighth day of December. From then on, every year on the "Twelfth lunar month" day, the monks in the temple would take fresh and dried fruits, put them in clean vessels and stay up all night until dawn. The cooked porridge is used to worship the Buddha. At that time, the monks in the temple chant sutras and perform Dharma, and then drink the porridge to commemorate it. This is the origin of Laba porridge. Buddhism has spread far and wide in our country and this custom has been followed. As for the ingredients of Laba porridge, almonds, peach kernels, preserved fruits, glutinous rice, soybeans, beans, etc. were used in the Northern Song Dynasty; walnuts, pine nuts, persimmon chestnuts, etc. were used in the Southern Song Dynasty; the color of the porridge in the Yuan Dynasty was dark red, also known as red grain porridge and cinnabar porridge, and red beans, lotus seeds, peanuts, red dates and other raw materials may be used.

　　"Tokyo" by Meng Yuanlao in the Song Dynasty Dream "Hua Lu" records: On December 8, "all major temples held Buddha bathing ceremonies, and sent Qibao and five-flavor porridge to the disciples, which was called "Laba porridge." People in the capital are also cooking porridge with fruit and other ingredients for food."

　　According to legend among Anhui people, when Zhu Yuanzhang was a child, he herded cattle for the landlords and often suffered from hunger due to lack of food. One day, he found a hole in a hut. He reached down and touched it, but it was a "granary" for rats! What he took out were rice, soybeans, red dates, chestnuts and other items. So he put all these grains into the pot and cooked a pot of hot porridge. On the day of Laba, he suddenly remembered that when he was a child, he took grain from mouse holes to cook porridge, and immediately ordered the imperial chef to cook porridge with various fruits and grains. After eating it, he was very happy and named the porridge "Laba porridge".

　　Since then, this food custom has been followed in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it was most popular in the Qing Dynasty. There is a poem that goes: "Every family cooks double bows of Laba, and hazelnuts and peach kernels are dyed red. I like my charming children to look at each other, and always say that the Buddha's blessing is endless. ”

　　Ingredients used in the Ming Dynasty include glutinous rice, ginkgo, walnut kernels, chestnuts, etc. for cooking porridge.

　　The famous Yonghegong Laba porridge, in addition to glutinous rice, millet and other grains, is also added with diced mutton and butter. The porridge surface is sprinkled with red dates, longan, walnut kernels, Grape Dried, melon seeds, green and red silk, etc.

　　Laba porridge is now also known as eight-treasure porridge. It is made of eight ingredients including longan, barley rice, oatmeal, glutinous rice, mung beans, red beans, kidney beans, and peanuts (you can also choose your favorites such as gorgon seeds, chestnuts, etc.).

　　New Year Cake - Eating New Year Cake during the Spring Festival means "the meaning of the year is better than the new year, and it is used to pray for good luck in the future." ”It means that everything goes well and every year is prosperous.

　　Types of rice cakes include: white cake in the north