Blogs
Kitchen God Festival
Hot 1 |
Today is the 23rd of the twelfth month by the lunar calendar when folks usually worship Kitchen God. According to Chinese folklore, every year on this day Kitchen God goes to Heaven reporting the good and evil of every household which might be rewarded or punished later. Therefore at the worshiping ceremony, people tend to smear fluid sticky sugar on the mouth of Kitchen God portrayed. Then, he can't speak ill of them to Providence any more. In addition, on the Eve of Spring Festival Kitchen God is to come back to us with other gods spending the festival, so a welcome ceremony will be held by then.
Post comment Comment (1 replies)
- Reply sunnyv
- ''Zao Shen''. The kitchen god is one of the important deities in Taoism and protects the hearth and family.
Just before New Year, he is said to return to heaven to report the activities of every household over the past year to the Jade Emperor who either rewards or punishes a family based on Zao Shen's annual report.
I remember our junior school teacher told us the story and origin of the kitchen god. One of the story is that the "Stove god" is believed to have appeared soon after the invention of the brick stove. The Kitchen god was originally believed to have resided in the stove and only later took on human form. During the Han Dynasty, it is believed that a poor farmer was surprised by the kitchen god who appeared on Lunar New Year as he was cooking. Yin Zifang decided to sacrifice his only sheep. In doing so, he became rich and decided that every winter he would sacrifice one sheep in order to display his deep gratitude. When we were young, we were amazed by these tales and never doubted it. People are slowly placing less importance on this annual rite because nowadays people hardly cook at home and eat out more.
