To make the Laba Congee for the upcoming Laba Festival, residents purchase coarse cereals in a supermarket in Tancheng County, Linyi City of southeast China's Shandong Province on Jan. 10. (Photo by Gu Jun, Xinhua)

Laba Congee contains glutinous rice, red beans, millet, Chinese sorghum, dried lotus seeds, dried dates, chestnut meat, walnut meat, almonds, and peanuts. Another Laba food is Laba garlic, which is particularly popular in northern China. The Garlic is soaked in vinegar for twenty days starting from the Laba festival. The garlic and vinegar is then eaten with Chinese dumplings (or Jiaozi) during the Chinese Spring Festival. Garlic, or suan in Chinese, shares the same pronunciation with “calculating”, making it an omen of great wealth in the coming year.