Children, don't be greedy, it's the New Year after Laba. "With the magnificent bloom of the plum, the snowflakes are falling, time brings us into the Laba Festival of the wax moon, although there is no fish and seafood, but the mellow fragrance of the bowl of porridge, such as the precipitation of the years, if the warmth of memory, in our hearts for a long time, the affection is warm.
I remember when I was a child, when the economy was backward and materials were scarce, my mother would also make every festival as enjoyable as possible. As soon as the wax moon arrived, my mother began to sort out the bottles and cans at home, looking for mung beans, cowpeas, red beans and so on harvested on the ditch in summer and autumn. Every year, after harvesting, my mother picks some plump beans and stores them in plastic bottles, she says, so that there will be no insects, no mold, and when you eat them, they will look like they are fresh. Relying on the unique geographical conditions by Chengzi Lake, my mother went to the lake to pick lotus pods in the summer, peeled out the lotus pod rice, dried it, and collected it until the moon to boil porridge. The night before arriving at Laba, my mother soaked mung beans, cowpeas, small climbing beans, sorghum rice or dried yams in clean water. In the morning of Laba, we were still in a sweet dream, so my mother got up early and began to boil porridge, put the soaked beans that are not easy to boil in the pot stove to boil, and then put a little alkaline water, it is said that the porridge boiled by putting some alkaline water is more fragrant and stronger. Boil the beans with a spoon and simmer them for a while to better absorb water and make them more viscous. Then put in rice, glutinous rice, peanuts, etc., which are usually difficult to eat, put a few red dates in good conditions, and continue to boil. The fiery red stove reflects the mother's hard-working, kind, beautiful and warm face.
When the porridge is almost cooked, there is still some fire left at the bottom of the pot, and my mother takes our cotton clothes, cotton pants, and shoes to bake them hot, and roasts a piece of cotton clothes, her heart is hope, love, and happiness, and the love of my mother is like a fire. We put on warm cotton clothes, and ran to the pot house (kitchen) excitedly, the fragrance of Laba porridge was overflowing, and when we opened the lid of the pot, we saw that Laba porridge was crystal clear, red and white, white and yellow, yellow and green, which was mouth-watering. Mom brought a bowl of porridge to Grandma and gave some to the neighbors. We eat silky, glutinous and delicious laba porridge, which is the sweet taste, the taste of expectation, and the taste of mother's love. This taste has always lingered in the lips, teeth, and heart, and every time I taste it, it is warm.
Nowadays, there are all kinds of ingredients for boiling porridge, which can satisfy your taste buds anytime, anywhere. When I was a child, I tried to steal red dates and dried fruits that I had never seen before, and I could finally enjoy them.
Today, the Buddha porridge is more fed, and the Jiangcun festival is new. Laba porridge comes from poetry, with people's wishes and hopes. "Laba Laba, frozen to death cold duck. "This is the coldest season of winter, and it is also a harbinger of the return of spring to the earth. People taste the ups and downs of the year in the sweet Laba porridge or the sour and hot Laba garlic, praying for the renewal of Vientiane in the new year and the harvest of happiness and happiness.
A bowl of laba porridge that has been passed down for thousands of years, the curling porridge fragrance floats in the ancient customs, and the rhyme of poetry that has been passed down through the ages. The thick sweet fragrance wafts away with joy and reunion, interpreting the care and warmth that have been passed down for a long time in ancient times, entrusting people's blessings to their loved ones, and carrying people's longing and beautiful expectations for the future in the New Year.