As freezing temperatures swept China Tuesday, people gathered across the nation to eat porridge distributed by Buddhist monks in temples or cooked in their own homes to celebrate the traditional Laba Festival.

"Eating porridge is an old tradition on the Laba Festival, which delivers good prospects for the New Year," said Wang Xiangzhong, 65, who was awaiting the service in a long queue outside the Guanghua Temple in downtown Beijing.

Laba literally means the eighth day of the 12th lunar month. The Laba Festival is regarded as a prelude to the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, the most important occasion of family reunion, which falls on Feb. 3 this year.

Chinese people began celebrating the Laba Festival before 221 B.C. -- when Qinshihuang, the first Chinese emperor, united China -- to pay respects to ancestors and gods as well as to pray for good harvests and happiness. But the tradition of eating porridge only began in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) with the spread of Buddhist practice.

The traditional recipe of porridge includes a mixture of different types of rice, millet, chestnuts, red jujubes, lotus seeds, red beans and other ingredients, including sugar.

Healthy eating concepts have influenced the old tradition.

"The pearl barley can help prevent hypertension, the chestnuts are good for the kidneys, and the beans and nuts containing ferrum elements are good for pregnant women," said expectant father Yang Hongli, in the northwestern city of Xi'an.