How to worship the kitchen god in the next year
The time for offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God is usually held before dusk, and the whole family should see him off together. First of all, put a table in front of the kitchen god, and put prepared desserts, melons and fruits, meals and so on. Dessert is dedicated to Kitchen God to make him sweet and put in a good word for the Jade Emperor.
Then, the head of the household or the oldest person in the family will give the kitchen god three incense sticks, and others will follow suit. Then put the paper horse made of bamboo sticks and fresh forage into the brazier to burn. This is a gift for Kitchen God. Finally, the whole family kowtowed to the Kitchen God, thanking him for his blessing this year, and hoping to bring more good luck to the family in the coming year.
The origin of kitchen god
Before talking about the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god, we must first understand what the kitchen god is.
Kitchen God, also known as Kitchen God and Kitchen God, is the immortal who is in charge of cooking stoves for thousands of families. His old man is responsible for the whole family's meal, so he is respected by people. Besides, Kitchen God is the oldest god in China legend.
According to documents and historical records, Kitchen God was widely respected by people in Xia Dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, the stove was one of the "five sacrifices" and had a very meticulous and strict process.
The prototype of Kitchen God is no longer available for inspection. In the early days, Yan Di and Zhu Rong said. Later, Taoism flourished, and the kitchen god was regarded as "the chef of the East Chef lives nine spirits, and the Yuan King blessed him". Folk gradually developed. In addition to the image of Grandma Kitchen God, many people worship Grandpa Kitchen God and Grandma Kitchen God together.
What is the food sacrificed to the kitchen god in the next year?
1, Niantang Nianbing: It symbolizes the sweetness of life (the supermarket sells a big bag containing all kinds of things);
2, rice cake: a symbol of high every year;
3, water chestnut: also known as horseshoe, symbolizing money;
4. Sugarcane: a symbol of high sky. Kitchen God uses the tail tip of sugarcane as a whip.
5. Spinach: To have roots, red roots must symbolize the prosperity of a day;
6. Garlic seedlings: a symbol of a good life (careful calculation)
The above six kinds are necessary, in addition: wine: there should be wine on the 23 rd lunar month, and no wine (yellow wine or old wine) on the 24 th lunar month; Tofu: The one with the word "Fu" printed on it is the best; Others: candy, oranges, etc. Generally ten, or not less than ten. Ten represents perfection; Burning paper for the kitchen god is usually burning gold ingots.
Why do you sacrifice to the kitchen god in off-year
According to legend, on this day, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven to report a family of good and evil to the Jade Emperor, so that the Jade Emperor can reward and punish them. Quitting the kitchen is to send away the kitchen god. In order to make the Kitchen God say more nice things about his family in front of the Jade Emperor, someone used chewing gum candy to respect him, so that he could only say sweet words; Some use distiller's grains to brush the kitchen door so that the kitchen god can't talk nonsense; Some sacrifice antelopes to make them speak well in the sky and keep safe underground. Therefore, "offering sacrifices to stoves" is a very important activity during the off-year period.
In most parts of northern China, it is customary to regard the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month as a small year. Off-year, also known as the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves, is a custom with great influence and wide spread among the people. In Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household will light three incense sticks in front of the kitchen god to offer fruit, honeydew melon, clear water and fodder for horses. After burning incense, the portrait of Kitchen God, which has been smoked for a year, will be uncovered and incinerated. People who worship the kitchen will burn the Oracle code while chanting and pray that "God will speak well and return to the palace for good luck."
Kitchen God is the god of diet in ancient myths and legends of China, and the head of the household that every family must support. Sacrificing the kitchen god originated from the natural worship of fire, and later developed into a god who sacrificed first and then cooked. After the Han Dynasty, influenced by the immortal thought and Taoism, Kitchen God became a god who specialized in monitoring good and evil and controlling the fate of family members.
Legend has it that on this day, Kitchen God asked God to report the good and evil of this family to the Jade Emperor, so that the Jade Emperor could reward and punish it. In order not to let Kitchen God speak ill of his family in front of the Jade Emperor, people try their best to please Kitchen God every year. Some worship him with gum candy, thinking that this can stick to the teeth of Kitchen God and make him only talk sweet words; Some painted the kitchen door with distiller's grains, calling it "drunk commander", so drunk that the kitchen god dared not talk nonsense; Some sacrifice with antelopes. Kitchen God is treated specially by people. It is hard to speak ill of him if he is "soft grinding and hard foaming".
Generally, people will post a portrait of the kitchen god near the stove, and sometimes it will be accompanied by a portrait of the kitchen god's grandmother. After a year of smoky fire, this portrait is old. Take off the old image and tie the grass horse for the kitchen god with straw. In order to make him "speak well in heaven and return to the palace for good luck", stick a sticky honeydew melon on his mouth and burn it with the grass horse. This process is called magnetic stove.
Buy a new portrait after the New Year, and ask Kitchen God to reply. In these intervening days, without the supervision of the kitchen god, most people overeat and gamble, indulging in some small mistakes that they usually think should not be made.
The kitchen gods worshipped by the people are different. One is the image of the Kitchen God couple. In front of the mystery case, there was a BMW carrying money and jewels, with door gods standing on both sides, and the images of the Eight Immortals were painted vertically on both sides of the picture. Above the kitchen palace, there is a year in the solar calendar, and the decorative image of two dragons and the messenger of a swift horse broke the door. In another kind of two-seater canon, only the couple of Kitchen Gods are engraved, but there is the image of Cowherd and Weaver Girl at the lower end of the altar, which means to pray for a bumper harvest in agriculture, ample food and clothing, and a beautiful home. The most interesting thing is the line ink version of the kitchen king. There are two ladies on both sides of Kitchen God. The gate is at the bottom of the box, guarded by Qin Qiong and Wei Chijingde, and led by stable boy.
Among the people, there are many legends about the kitchen god, and there is such a story circulating in my hometown. It is said that the name of Kitchen God is Zhang Sheng, and his family has a great career. His daughter-in-law, Li Xiaoshun, is filial to the elderly, well managed and virtuous. The only fly in the ointment is that she is infertile. A few years later, Zhang Sheng married his second daughter-in-law, Guo Haitang. Although she looks like a fairy and is not picky, she is an idle character. In rural areas, this kind of people call mice to marry cats-they only eat and don't work. After marrying Guo Haitang, he was very picky about Li's nose, and later he simply divorced Li. Since then, Li has been more diligent, working day and night, and his life is getting better and better. In a few years, he became a millionaire with horses and mules. Besides, Zhang Sheng and Guo Haitang are lazy by nature, and neither of them can work. After a few years, they have scattered the business of a large family, and they can't even eat any food in their mouths. Beauty Guo Haitang starves to death. Zhang Sheng was very helpless, so he had to beg with a jujube stick. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, he will go to the Li family. When Li saw it was him through the door, he felt sorry for him and asked the maid to take him to the kitchen and let him eat as much as possible. When Li came in, Zhang Sheng was wolfing down his food. As soon as they met, Zhang Sheng blushed and his neck was thick, and he plunged into the kitchen fire and burned to death. When Zhang Sheng went to heaven, he admitted his mistake to the jade emperor, who named him the kitchen god in charge of all kinds of fate.
In addition, the Han nationality has the custom that "men don't Yue Bai, and women don't offer sacrifices to the kitchen", so the owner of offering sacrifices to the kitchen is limited to men. On New Year's Eve, the Kitchen God will bring the gods to the world to pay New Year greetings, and there will be ceremonies of "receiving the kitchen" and "receiving the gods" on that day. Every family burns sedan chairs and horses, sprinkles three glasses of wine, and sends away the kitchen god, so it's their turn to worship their ancestors.
Therefore, in the feudal era, "offering sacrifices to stoves" was a very important activity during the off-year period.