Let the porridge eating begin! Spring Festival around corner

Chinese people began preparatory celebrations for Spring Festival, their most important annual holiday, on Sunday with the Laba Rice Porridge Festival.

Laba is regarded as the prelude to the coming Lunar New Year, with people starting their preparations for Spring Festival more than 20 days in advance. The 12th lunar month in Chinese is called la yue, so the eighth day of the lunar month is la yue chu ba, or laba.

A folk saying goes "when Laba arrives, the Spring Festival is around the corner", meaning the festival marks the start of a series of Spring Festival celebrations.