What is the origin of the folk custom of sending the kitchen god to heaven on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month?

Off-year, that is, the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, is a festival to worship the kitchen god. It is the beginning and foreshadowing of the whole Spring Festival celebration, and there are two main activities: sweeping graves to celebrate the New Year and offering sacrifices to stoves. In addition, there is the custom of eating stove candy. In some places, we also eat fire, sugar cakes, oil cakes and tofu soup.

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, also called "off-year", is the day when people worship the kitchen. It is said that every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, Kitchen God will tell the Jade Emperor about the good and evil of this family and let the Jade Emperor reward and punish them. Therefore, when sending stoves, people will put candy, water, beans and grass on the console table in front of the statue of the kitchen god, and the last three are for the kitchen god's mount to ascend to heaven.

When offering sacrifices to the stove, you should melt the Guandong sugar with fire and put it on the mouth of the kitchen god. In this way, he can't speak ill of the jade emperor There is a folk custom that "men don't Yue Bai, women don't offer sacrifices to stoves", so the owner of offering sacrifices to stoves is limited to men.

The origin of sacrificial furnace

The custom of offering sacrifices to stoves has a long history. Kitchen God, in the Xia Dynasty, has become a respected god. In the Analects of Confucius, which describes Kong Qiu's words and deeds in the Spring and Autumn Period, there is a saying that "it is better to be charming than beautiful."

In the pre-Qin period, the sacrificial furnace was one of the "five sacrifices" (the five sacrifices were the five gods of sacrificial furnace, gate, line, household and thunder). Ray is the land god. The other is doors, wells, households, stoves and lightning; Or lines, wells, households, stoves, thunder). When offering sacrifices to the stove, you should establish a spirit and make a sacrifice with rich wine and food. It is necessary to display tripods, arrange water beans, welcome corpses and so on. With obvious traces of primitive fetishism.

The legend of the kitchen god

Kitchen God, also known as Kitchen King, Kitchen King, Kitchen God, Chef, Chef, etc. , is the god of catering in ancient Chinese myths and legends. Kitchen God himself has long been known as Yan Di and Zhu Rong. Later, many statements were derived. After the Jin Dynasty, it was listed as a god who supervised the good and evil on earth.

With the development of social production, since humans broke away from eating animals and drinking blood and invented fire food, stoves have gradually become 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 Sacrifice Law, "Wang made seven sacrifices", that is, one sacrifice was a "stove", while Shu Ren made a sacrifice, "or set up a household or a stove".

In ancient China, there were activities of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, Kitchen God had a name. Sui Du Taiqing's Collection of Jade Candles quoted the Kitchen Book as saying, "Kitchen God, surnamed Su, has a lucky name, but her female name is unfortunate". Tang Lixian quoted the Miscellaneous Five Elements Book and said, "The kitchen god named Zen, the word Guo Zi, came out of the kitchen wearing yellow clothes and long hair." There are many sayings that Kitchen God was a goddess at first, or an old woman or a beautiful woman.

About the Qing Dynasty's "Jing Zao Quan Shu", it is said that the chef's surname is Zhang, the name list and the word Guo, and he is a male god. At present, the East Chef, who is worshipped by the people, ordered Fu Zaojun to sit side by side with an old couple or a man and two women, that is, the portrait of Zao Jun and his wife.

After the prosperity of Taoism in China, the kitchen god was described as the mother god in Jing Shuo. "People's residence. At twelve o'clock, be good at knowing human affairs. Remember good and evil and their merits and demerits every month, remember their severity, play Cao Shen in the middle of the night and set his book. " Later, it developed into grandparents. In different regions, Zhao Jun and his wife are played by different candidates, accompanied by popular local folklore stories.

Make window decorations and paper cuts

Cutting out the window grilles and sticking them in the house added a lot of joy to the family for the New Year.

There are various animals, plants and figures in the window patterns, such as magpies climbing plum blossoms, peacocks beating peonies, lions rolling hydrangeas, three sheep (Yang) opening Thailand, two dragons playing pearls, deer crane (Liuhe Tongchun), five bats (Fu) holding longevity, rhinoceros looking at the moon, lotus (Lotus) playing with water and bangs, etc.

Take a bath and get a haircut

There is a folk saying that "if you have money, you will shave your head for the New Year". Bathing and hairdressing activities are mostly concentrated around off-year.