The Chen Tao Festival

The Chen Tao Festival takes place on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month. It is a Buddhist festival celebrating the day Buddha Sakyamuni reached Nirvana.

Chen Tao porridge: The most important activity of this festival is the eating of a special porridge. It was origianally a very simple dish made of ordinary rice and red beans. Later it became more complex. The main ingredient today is rice, although up to 10 different sorts of rice are needed, including yellow rice, jiang rice, small rice, and ling rice. Other ingredients include walnuts, almonds, water-melon seeds, peanuts, pinion nut kernels, raisins, dried longanberry pulp, lilies, and lotus seeds. It is cooked over-night on a low fire. It has a very strong and delicious fragrance. It is also traditional to eat special noodles, garlic and other strongly flavoured foods on the day of the festival.