The 23rd month of the twelfth lunar month, also known as the "small year", is a day for people to sacrifice to the kitchen. It is said that on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month every year, the kitchen god will report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor and let him reward and punish them. So what day is this year's new year? Let's take a look with Xiaobian.
Therefore, when delivering the stove, people put sugar, water, beans and hay on the table in front of the kitchen King's statue, and the last three are materials for his mount. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, we should melt Guandong sugar with fire and smear it on the mouth of the kitchen Lord. In this way, he could not speak ill of the Jade Emperor. There is a folk custom of "men don't worship the moon, women don't sacrifice the kitchen", so the sacrifice to the kitchen Lord is limited to men.
In addition, on the evening of the new year's Eve, the kitchen king will come to celebrate the new year with the gods. On that day, there must be a ceremony of "picking up the kitchen stove" and "picking up the gods". When families burn sedans and horses, sprinkle three glasses of wine and send the kitchen god away, it's their turn to worship their ancestors.
Sacrificial kitchen is a popular custom with great influence in China. In the old days, almost every kitchen had the God of "kitchen Lord". People call this God "simang Bodhisattva" or "Zaojun simang". It is said that he is the "nine days East kitchen simang kitchen Lord" granted by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for the management of the cooking fires in each family and is worshipped as a protection god of the family. Most of the kitchen King niches are located in the north or east of the kitchen, with the god statue of the kitchen Lord in the middle. People who don't have the kitchen King's niche also have the gods directly pasted on the wall. Some deities only draw Kitchen God alone, while others have two men and women. The goddess is called "kitchen King grandma". This is probably to imitate the image of human couple. Most of the kitchen god's statues are also printed with the calendar of the year, with the words "master of the eastern chef's order", "God of human supervision" and "head of a family" written on them to indicate the status of Kitchen God. On both sides, the couplet of "Heaven's word is good, the lower boundary is safe" is pasted to protect the safety of the whole family.
Origin of sacrificial kitchen
The custom of sacrificing to the kitchen has a long history. Zaojun, in the Xia Dynasty, has become a great God respected by the people. In the Analects of Confucius, which records the words and deeds of Kong Qiu in the spring and Autumn period, there is a saying that "with its beauty, with its auspiciousness, with its beauty, with its stove".
In the pre-Qin period, offering sacrifices to kitchen was one of the "five sacrifices" (five sacrifices for kitchen, door, line, household and Zhonglei). Middle thunder is the God of earth. The other is gate, well, household, stove and middle thunder, or line, well, household, stove and middle thunder). When offering sacrifices to the kitchen, a God should be set up, and abundant wine and food should be used as sacrifices. We need to show the order, set the beans, welcome the corpses and so on. It has obvious traces of primitive fetishism.
Legend of Zaojun
23 Kitchen God, also known as kitchen king, kitchen king, kitchen king, Kitchen God, kitchen master, kitchen master, Eastern chef and so on, is the God of food and drink in ancient Chinese myths and legends. Zaojun himself, in the early days, said Yan Di and Zhu Rong. Later, many theories have been derived. After the Jin Dynasty, it was listed as the God of command to supervise the good and evil in the world. Since the invention of fire food, with the development of social production, cooking has been closely related to human life. The worship of Kitchen God has become an important part of many worship activities. Therefore, in the book of rites & middot; sacrifice law, the "king set up seven sacrifices for the group's surname", that is to say, one sacrifice is "Zao", while the common people and the common people set up one sacrifice, "or set up a household, or set up a Zao".
In ancient China, the kitchen god was worshipped. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the kitchen god had a name. According to the book of cooking stove cited in the book of jade candles by Du Taiqing of Sui Dynasty, the God of cooking stove, surnamed Su, was named Jili, and the woman was named Bojia. Li Xian of Tang Dynasty cited miscellaneous five elements script, also known as "kitchen god named Zen, Zi Guo, yellow clothes, hair, out of the kitchen". At the beginning, the kitchen god was a goddess, or an old woman, or a beautiful woman, with many sayings. About out of the Qing Dynasty, "Jing Zao Quan Shu" said, Zao Jun surname Zhang, list, word Guo, is a God. At present, the eastern chef's order, Dingfu Zaojun, is a portrait of an old couple sitting side by side, or a man and two women sitting side by side, that is, Zaojun and his wife.
After the prosperity of Taoism in China, the kitchen god was once described as a woman's old mother according to the theory of Scripture. 'manage people's homes. Twelve hours, good knowledge of the world. On the new moon of each month, record the good and evil and their merits and virtues, record the importance of them, play the heavenly Cao in the middle of the night, and make a Book of them '. Later, it developed into the saying that there were both grandpa and grandma of Zaojun. In different areas, the kitchen king and his wife are chosen by different people, accompanied by popular local folklore.
The folklore of Zao Wang Ye: it is said that Zao Wang Ye is the supervisor sent by the Jade Emperor to every house. He will rise to heaven on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month and report the good or bad deeds of his family to the Jade Emperor of heaven. After listening to this, the Jade Emperor will hand over the good and bad fortune the family should have in the new year to the kitchen Lord. So on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, when people 'send the kitchen', they will offer the sugar comparison made of caramel and flour, the paper horse made of bamboo strips and the fodder for feeding animals, so that the kitchen Lord can have a sweet mouth, say good words and enter the palace to bring down the good fortune!
What do you eat in the new year?
During the festival, people pay attention to eating dumplings, and take the idea of 'sending dumplings off to face the wind'. There are more cakes and buckwheat noodles in the mountains. In the southeast of Shanxi Province, it is popular to eat fried corn. There is a saying in the folk proverb, "23, do not eat fried corn. At the beginning of the year - one pot pour". People like to stir fry corn with maltose, frozen into large pieces, eat crisp and sweet.
According to the folklore, the God of Zaojun specifically accuses people of crimes. Once the defendant is accused, the life of a big crime will be reduced by 300 days, and that of a small crime by 100 days. In the chapter of Taishang induction, there is also a record of "Si Ming follows its importance and seizes its discipline and calculation". Si Ming refers to the kitchen master, which is counted as 100 days and 12 years. Here, felony sentences have been increased to 12 years. Therefore, when offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, we should give it some help to the kitchen king, and ask him to give us a high hand.
In the north of Shanxi Province, there is a folk song "the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, Grandpa Zaojun, you go to heaven, you eat the sugar board in your mouth, you are not allowed to talk in front of the Jade Emperor, you come back to our home to celebrate the new year, you have rice, you have clothes on your face", which shows the pursuit and yearning for a better life.