Laba Festival (là bā jié 腊八) is celebrated on the eighth day of the last lunar month, referring to the traditional start of celebrations for the Chinese New Year. "腊"(là) in Chinese means the 12th lunar month and "八"(bā)  means eight.

The majority Han Chinese have long followed the tradition of eating Laba rice porridge on the Laba Festival. The date usually falls in mid-January.

Legend
Laba rice porridge (là bā zhōu 腊八粥) was first introduced to China in the Song Dynasty (sòng cháo 宋朝) about 900 years ago.

Buddhism was well accepted in the areas inhabited by the Han Chinese, who believed that Sakyamuni (shì jiā móu ní 释迦牟尼), the first Buddha and founder of the religion, attained enlightenment on the eighth day of the twelfth month. Sutras (fó jīng 佛经) were chanted in the temples and rice porridge with beans, nuts and dried fruit was prepared for the Buddha. With the passing of time the custom extended, especially in rural areas where peasants would pray for a plentiful harvest in this way.

The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival (chóng yáng jié 重阳节), or Double Ninth Festival.

It usually falls in October in the Gregorian calendar. In an ancient and mysterious book Yi Jing (yì jīng 易经), or The Book of Changes, number "6" was thought to be of Yin (yīn 阴) character, meaning feminine or negative, while number "9" was thought to be Yang (yáng 阳), meaning masculine or positive. So the number nine in both month and day create the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. Chong in Chinese means "double." Also, as double ninth was pronounced the same as the word to signify "forever", both are "Jiu Jiu" (jiǔ jiǔ 九九), the Chinese ancestors considered it an auspicious day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to celebrate this festival long time ago.