Chinese Spring Festival customs: Sacrifice the stove. my country’s Spring Festival usually kicks off with the sacrifice of the stove.

In the folk song "Twenty-three, Tanggua Guan" refers to the sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying of "officials, three people, four boatmen and five", which means that on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the government,

Generally, people hold sacrifices to the stove on the 24th, while people on the water hold sacrifices to the stove on the 25th.

Sacrificing stoves is a custom that has great influence among Chinese people and is widely spread.

In the old days, almost every kitchen had a "Kitchen Lord" statue in the kitchen.

People call this god "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Zao Lord Siming". Legend has it that he is the "Jiutian East Chef Si Ming Zao Wangfu Lord" conferred by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is regarded as the protector of the family.

worship.

Most of the Kitchen King's niches are located on the north or east side of the kitchen room, with the statue of the Kitchen King in the middle.

Some people who don't have a niche for the Kitchen King stick the statue of the god directly on the wall.

Some statues only depict the Kitchen God alone, while others include two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen God".

This is probably an imitation of the image of a human couple.

Most of the statues of the Kitchen God also have a calendar for that year printed on them, with words such as "Master of the East Chef", "God of Human Supervision" and "Head of the Family" written on them to indicate the status of the Kitchen God.

The couplets "God says good things, and the lower realms keep you safe" are pasted on both sides to bless the whole family.

The Kitchen God has been staying at home since the last New Year's Eve to protect and supervise the family. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will go to heaven to report the family's good or bad deeds to the Jade Emperor in heaven, and send the Kitchen God's blessings.

The ceremony is called "sending the stove" or "saying the stove".

Based on the report of the Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor handed over the good and bad fortunes that the family should receive in the new year to the hands of the Kitchen God.

Therefore, for the family, the Stove Lord’s report is indeed of great interest.

Sending stoves is usually held at dusk and into night.

The family goes to the kitchen first, sets the table, offers incense to the Kitchen God in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and offers sugar melons made with malt sugar and noodles.

Then tie bamboo strips into paper horses and fodder for livestock.

Offering caramel to the Stove Lord is to sweeten his mouth.

In some places, sugar is spread around the Stove Lord's mouth, and while applying it, he says: "Say more good things, but don't say bad things." This is to stuff the Stove Lord's mouth with sugar to prevent him from saying bad things.

In the Tang Dynasty work "The Chronicles of the Year under the Chariot", there is a record of "smearing wine dregs on the stove to make the commander (Kitchen Lord) drunk".

After people coated Stove Lord's mouth with sugar, they took off the statue and went up to heaven with the paper and cigarettes.

In some places, sesame straw and pine branches are piled in the yard at night, and then the Kitchen God statue that has been kept for a year is taken out of the shrine, along with the paper horse and straw, and set on fire.

The yard was brightly illuminated by the fire. At this time, the family kowtowed around the fire and prayed while burning: This year is the 23rd again, and I send the Stove King off to the west.

There are strong horses, there is fodder, and the journey is smooth and safe.

The sugar melon offered is sweet. Please say good things to the Jade Emperor.

When sending off the Kitchen God, in some places there are still several beggars who dress up in disguise and go from house to house singing songs and dancing to the Kitchen God, called "giving away the Kitchen God", in exchange for food.

The custom of giving away stoves is very common in the north and south of my country. Mr. Lu Xun once wrote the poem "Gengzi Sends Stoves to the People": A chicken is glued to the teeth, and a piece of clothing is offered for incense.

If there is nothing growing in the house, there are only a few yellow sheep.

He said in the article "Send the Stove Day Essay": "On the day when the Stove God ascended to heaven, a kind of candy was sold on the street, the size of an orange. We also have this kind of candy, but it is flat, like a thick candy.

Small pancakes. That's what's called "glue-toothed glutinous rice cake." The original intention is to treat Zao Lord to eat it, so that he can't talk bad words to the Jade Emperor.

"The allusion comes from "The Book of the Later Han·Yin Shi Zhuan": "During the reign of Emperor Xuan, Yin Zi Fang was extremely filial and benevolent. In the morning of the twelfth lunar month, when the Kitchen God appeared, Zi Fang worshiped and celebrated again. There was a yellow sheep in the family.

Because of this, he became extremely wealthy and became prosperous in the third generation, so he often offered sacrifices to the stove god during the twelfth lunar month.

Good luck.

From then on, the custom of killing yellow sheep to offer sacrifices to the stove has been passed down.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, offerings to the stove were quite abundant.

Fan Chengda, a poet of the Song Dynasty, gave a very vivid description of folk sacrifices to the stove in his "Ci of Sacrifice to the Stove": According to ancient legend, on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Stove Lord looked up to the sky and wanted to say something.

The clouds, the carriages, the wind, the horses, the little ones linger, and there are cups and plates in the house for the feast.

The pig's head is overcooked, the fish is fresh, and the rice bait is round with sweetened bean paste and spikenard.

The man offers his daughter a drink to escape, and the king is happy to drink wine and burn money.

Don't listen to your servants' fights, don't get angry when cats and dogs touch you.

I will send you drunk and full to the gate of heaven. If you have a long spoon or a short spoon, don't repeat the cloud. I will beg for profit and return points.

The sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the Chinese New Year.

Because, on the eve of the New Year’s Eve a week later, the Kitchen God came to the world together with other gods with the good and bad luck that the family should receive.

The Kitchen God is believed to lead the way for the gods in the sky.

Other gods will go to heaven again after the New Year, but only the Kitchen God will stay in people's kitchens for a long time.

The ceremony to welcome the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for the Kitchen God, it is called "receiving the stove".

The ceremony of taking over the stove is usually on New Year's Eve, and the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, you only need to put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche.

There is a saying that "men do not worship the moon, women do not worship the stove".

In some places, women do not offer sacrifices to the stove. It is said that the Stove Lord looks like a pretty boy and is afraid of women offering sacrifices to the stove.

As for the origin of Stove Lord, it has a long history.