Legend of "Sacrificing Kitchen Stove" and "Kitchen God" in off-year

"Off-year" is a traditional festival for the Han people in China to sacrifice stoves. There are two main activities: sweeping the year (cleaning indoor sanitation) and offering sacrifices to stoves. Since then, people have entered the preparations for the New Year and started to relax mentally. The following is the legend of "sacrifice stove" and "kitchen god" I brought to you, hoping to help you!

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Legend of "Sacrificing Kitchen Stove" and "Kitchen God" in off-year

Pay attention to folk sacrificial stoves

What does Kitchen God do?

Legend of "Sacrificing Kitchen Stove" and "Kitchen God" in off-year

Sacrificing a stove is a kind of custom with great influence and wide spread among the people in our country. In the past, people in China basically ate rice. Because cooked food is not easy to keep, they have to cook it at once. Therefore, "firewood" (fuel) ranks first among the "seven things" in life (firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea). Every family must have a stove for cooking, and most stoves are equipped with a kitchen god. People call this god "the Bodhisattva of Destiny" or "the chef is in charge of life". Legend has it that he was named "Commander of the Nine-Day East Chef" by the Jade Emperor, who was responsible for managing the stoves of various families and was regarded as the patron saint of the family. Kitchen shrines are mostly located in the north or east of the kitchen (facing the fire blower box), and the idol of kitchen god is in the middle. Some people who don't have the niche of the Kitchen King even put the idol directly on the wall. Some gods only draw a kitchen god, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Chef". This is probably an imitation of the image of human lovers. Most of the statues of Kitchen God are also printed with the calendar of this year, which reads the words "Oriental chef is in charge", "guardian of the world" and "head of the family" to show the status of Kitchen God. On both sides, there are couplets of "Heaven speaks well and goes back to the palace for good luck", wishing the whole family peace.

Kitchen God has been staying at home since he came back last New Year's Eve, protecting and supervising this family. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven and report the good and evil of this family to the Jade Emperor. At this time, every household will hold a farewell ceremony for the kitchen god, which is called "sending the kitchen stove" or "resigning the kitchen stove". According to the kitchen god's report, the Jade Emperor gave the kitchen god all the good and bad fortune that the family should get in the coming year. It can be seen that for a family, Kitchen God's report is very interesting. Sending stoves is usually held at dusk. Men in the whole family (as the saying goes, "Men don't Yue Bai, women don't offer sacrifices to stoves"), it is said that Kitchen God is a small white face, afraid of women offering sacrifices to stoves, and he is suspected of being male or female, so offering sacrifices to stoves is often limited to men). They put a console table for honeydew melons made of caramel and flour. ) In the kitchen room, incense is first given to the kitchen god located in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and then it is offered for use. After that, they took down the statue and lit it with paper, horses and cigarettes. In some places, sesame stalks and pine branches are piled in the yard at night, and then the statue of the kitchen god, which has been enshrined for a year, is taken out of the shrine and burned on the fire with paper horses and forage. At this time, the family kowtowed around the fire, burning and praying: this year is 23, sending the kitchen god to the west. With strong horses and forage, you will arrive safely. Melon is sweet and sweet. Please speak kindly to the Jade Emperor.

The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the New Year. Because, a week later, on New Year's Eve, Kitchen God came to the world with the good and bad fortune that the family should get. Kitchen God is the guiding god of the gods who fell from the sky in the New Year. A few years later, only the kitchen god stayed in this kitchen, and other immortals returned to heaven one after another. The ceremony of welcoming God is called "receiving God", and the kitchen god is called "receiving kitchen". Generally speaking, on New Year's Eve, the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, just put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche.

When people are busy offering sacrifices to stoves, they will naturally think of the origin of the kitchen god, which has a long history.

Among the folk gods in China, the qualification of Kitchen God has a long history. As early as the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god revered by the people. According to the ancient book The Book of Rites? Ying Da Shu by Confucius: "Hitachi, the son of Zhuan Xu, is Zhu Rong and the kitchen god." Zhuangzi? Sheng Da recorded: "The stove has steamed buns." Sima Biao commented: "bun, kitchen god, dressed in red, looks like a beautiful woman." "Bao Puzi?" "Wei Zhi" also recorded: "On a dark night, Kitchen God also accused the white man in the sky. "These records are likely to be the source of Kitchen God. Also, or the kitchen god is a "suiren" who drills wood to make a fire; Or Shennong's "fire official"; Or "Su" who cooks for the Yellow Emperor? Or the kitchen god surnamed Zhang, the name list, the word Guo; Opinions vary.

However, there is an interesting story among the people.

It is said that in ancient times there was a family named Zhang, two brothers. The elder brother was a plasterer and the younger brother was a painter. My brother's specialty is cooking pots and pans. He was invited by East Street and West Square, and they all praised his cooking. He has been famous for a long time, and Fiona Fang called him "King Zhang Zao" thousands of miles away. Strangely, no matter who Wang goes to build a stove, he likes to meddle in other people's homes if there is a dispute. When he meets a noisy daughter-in-law, he will persuade him. When he meets a fierce mother-in-law, he will say that he seems to be an old elder. In the future, neighbors will look for him if they have anything, and everyone respects him. The king lived seventy years, and when he died, it happened to be late at night on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. After the death of Wang, Zhang Jiake fell into chaos. It turns out that the king is the head of the family and everything in the family is under his command. Now that the eldest brother has passed away, the younger brother can only write poems and draw pictures. Although he spent a lot of time, he never did housework. The daughters-in-law in several rooms clamored for separation, and the painter was stirred helplessly and frowned all day. One day, he finally came up with a good idea On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the first anniversary of Wang's death, late at night, the painter suddenly called to wake up the whole family and said that the eldest brother had appeared. He took his son, daughter-in-law and the whole family to the kitchen, only to see the flickering candlelight on the dark kitchen wall showing the appearance of the king and his dead wife, and the whole family was shocked. The painter said, "When I slept, I dreamed that my eldest brother and sister-in-law had become immortals, and the Jade Emperor named him' Nine Days East Chef ordered the chef to be the king of the palace'. You are always lazy, lazy, and your sister-in-law is not harmonious, disrespectful and unfilial, which makes your family uneasy. My brother is very angry when he knows that you are going to break up. He is going to tell the Jade Emperor that he will come down on the evening of the 30th to punish you. " Hearing this, the sons and daughters' nephews and daughters-in-law were frightened. They immediately knelt down and kowtowed again and again, and hurriedly brought Wang Ping's favorite sweets to the stove to eat, pleading with the kitchen king for forgiveness. Since then, uncles, brothers and daughters-in-law who often make noise have never dared to make trouble again. The whole family lives in harmony, young and old. Neighbors knew about it, and the news spread. They all came to Zhang's house and wanted to know the truth. In fact, the kitchen god on the kitchen wall on the 23rd night of the twelfth lunar month was painted by the painter in advance. He came to town to scare his children's nephews and daughters-in-law, but this method really worked. So the neighbor came to the painter to inquire about the situation, so he had to pretend and distribute the painted kitchen god to the neighbors. As a result, it spread along the countryside, and the kitchen of every household was labeled as the kitchen god. Over time, the custom of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and praying for the safety of the family was formed. After the custom of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god spread, from the Zhou Dynasty, the palace also included it in the sacrificial ceremony, and formulated the rules of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god nationwide, which became a fixed ceremony. Especially in the Qing dynasty. Since the reign of Yongzheng, the emperor has been offering sacrifices to the gods in Kunning Palace every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. In order to save money, the emperor also worshipped the kitchen god. Later, the royal family and Baylor followed suit and sacrificed stoves on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Since then, there has been a division between the government and the people, and they live a small life on different days.

In fact, the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves is a reflection of the secular social order in ancient China, showing the fear of ordinary people to the emperor and his grass-roots officials, and the atmosphere of bribing grass-roots officials. As the saying goes, as long as the closest official is bribed, the emperor will not know what he has done, and even a little violation can escape the punishment of the law.

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Pay attention to folk sacrificial stoves

The time of offering sacrifices to stoves varies from place to place, with the twelfth lunar month in the north and the twenty-fourth in the south. There is also a saying of "three officials, four people and five families" among the Han people, that is, twenty-three officials, twenty-four people and twenty-five families were worshipped in the twelfth lunar month.

Kitchen shrines are mostly located in the north or east of the kitchen, with the idol of Kitchen God in the middle. Some people who don't have the niche of the Kitchen King even put the idol directly on the wall. Some gods only draw a kitchen god, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen God", probably imitating the image of human lovers.

Most of the statues of Kitchen God are also printed with the calendar of this year, which reads the words "Oriental chef is in charge", "guardian of the world" and "head of the family" to show the status of Kitchen God. On both sides, there are couplets of "Heaven says yes, the lower bound is safe", wishing the whole family peace.

Ceremonies for offering sacrifices to stoves are mostly held at night. When offering sacrifices to the stove, the people who offer sacrifices to the stove kneel in front of the statue of the stove and hug the rooster. Some people even let children hold chickens and kneel behind adults. It is said that the chicken is the horse on which jujube ascended to heaven, so the chicken is called a horse instead of a chicken. Such as red rooster, commonly known as "red horse" and white cock, commonly known as "white horse".

After burning the incense table, the host poured wine and kowtowed, muttering something. After reading it, the burning lamp shouted "collar"! And then pour the chicken head with wine. If a chicken's head flutters, it means that Grandpa Jujube has been ungrateful. If the head of the chicken doesn't move, it needs to be watered again. After the ceremony, people began to eat food, such as stove, candy and fire. In some places, they also eat sugar cakes, oil cakes and tofu soup.

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What does Kitchen God do?

1. First, prepare fruits, wine and vegetables, and offer incense and candles. Specifically, it includes rice cake: a symbol of sweet life (the supermarket sells a big bag with all kinds of things in it); Rice cake: a symbol of annual height; Water chestnut: also called horseshoe, symbolizing money; Sugarcane: a symbol of the rising period. Kitchen God uses the tail tip of sugarcane as a whip. Spinach: there must be roots, and the red roots symbolize the richness of the days; Garlic seedling: a symbol of good calculation (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.

2. Time: Sacrifice the furnace on the 23rd day of the lunar calendar, before 6 o'clock on the 24th night.

3. On the 23rd day of the lunar calendar, wine should be served, but not on the 24th day. Kitchen God is afraid that he will be full of alcohol when reporting.

On the 23rd of the lunar calendar, fishy food can be used as the staple food, and on the 24th, vegetarian food can be used as the staple food.

If something can't be bought, there are only a few things, and some things can be added by yourself.

6. When offering sacrifices, you can talk to Kitchen God and let Kitchen God put in a good word for your family.

7. If it is a rental house, there is no need for a kitchen god, because there is no kitchen god in the rental house. If you want to confess, let the people in your hometown confess.

8. Special reminder: When offering sacrifices to stoves on the 23rd day of the lunar calendar, don't remove the old image of Kitchen God until the 24th or around the Spring Festival, and replace it with a new one, because Kitchen God won't leave your home until around 6 pm on the 24th, riding a horse to the sky and reporting to the sky. If you tear off the image of the old kitchen god at the age of 23, the kitchen god will have no place to stay. Donors can remove the old statue of Kitchen God and replace it with a new one. Old Kitchen God can burn it or treat it as garbage.

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