The twenty-third day of the waxing moon is the day of the sacrifice stove, commonly known as "small year", "small year", "small year", "small new year festival", the main activity is to sacrifice the stove at night, send the stove god to heaven, called "sending stove", "word stove" and "drunken order", until the Chinese New Year's Eve takes the stove home. In Shandong, most of them celebrate the 23rd lunar month, but there are also special circumstances that are offered on the 24th line of the lap month.
According to folklore, the King of Stove is a god sent by the Jade Emperor to supervise the good and evil of mankind, and also specializes in fireworks, and is revered as "East Kitchen Commander", "Stove King" (also known as "Soap King"), "Stove God" and "Stove King", commonly known as "Stove King", linyi area called "Stove King" and "Tibetan Mother Lord". It is said that the King of Stove would report to the Jade Emperor once a year and report the good deeds and evil deeds of the family to the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor arranged for the family to repay the good and evil in the coming year.
Vesta God Statue
At night, the portrait of the god of the stove is pasted on the wall of the pot stove or on the wall behind the kitchen stove, on the stove table, and the couplets are pasted on both sides: "The heavens say good things, and the netherworld descends auspiciously", "The lord of the Great Yiya family, the sacred five gods are respected", "The Lord of the Eastern Kitchen, the Lord of fortune in the North Pole", "The Spirit of the Fire, the Righteous Temperament of Heaven", etc., and the posters are posted horizontally as "the head of the family" or "the rice salt of ten thousand households is in sight" and "the product is the head of the five gods". The sacrifices are generally sweet and sticky foods such as sugar melon (made of maltose), sugar cake, persimmon cake fruit, sticky cake, etc., which means to stick to the mouth of the king of the stove, not to let him say more bad things in heaven, or to make his mouth sweet and say more good things, so there is a proverb "twenty-three, sugar melon sticky". Wucheng and other places are called "Tu Shen Kou", some still stick a piece of sugar on the mouth of the stove god or the stove mouth, and some smear wine and lees on the stove door, such as Qufu, Zhangqiu and other places, called "drunken Si Ming". The folk song sings: "Stove King, legs bent, kicking and stumbling (dialect, walking stumbling look) to the western heavens." I saw the Jade Emperor complaining and ate the sugar melon steak (dialect, big bite to eat) miscellaneous noodles! ”
In addition to sugar melons and the like, some also supply dumplings, noodles or stove chicken made of straw and put a bowl of meat in front of the burning paper. During the sacrifice, a farewell ceremony was held, the whole family knelt down and prostrated, burned the old statue of the stove king and a paper horse, and the elderly also chanted "Stove king stove king, you go to heaven, say more good, less evil, all the grains and grains are brought" or "The stove king goes to heaven, talk more good words, don't talk dirty words; bless the whole family, peace and security." Those who urgently needed to have children said: "On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the king of the stove went to the western heavens, saying more good and less evil, and bringing a fat boy on the horse's tail." The long island area said: "The king of the stove went to the western heavens, brought more silver down to spend the New Year, said good things in heaven, and went down to the earth to ensure peace." Linqing sang: "On the twenty-third day of the waxing moon, the king of the stove went to the western heavens, steamed a sticky nest, and glued your mouth." Just say that the daughter-in-law is virtuous, don't say throw rice noodles; go early and come early, bring a small one to the new sister-in-law. Fei County sang: "The king of the stove, the king of the stove, according to the pot, against the wall, the porridge made in the pot, a meal you taste first." Once a year, the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, once a year to heaven. Heaven rode a white jade horse, went to heaven to see the Jade Emperor, and worshiped two lines on official business. Say more good words, say less bad words, keep the heavy rain in June, and ensure that the poor people will hit more than 10,000 stones of grain. The grain that is beaten is less chaff and the family is happy to sit in the room, and the pot head protects the skirt woman, and the skirt woman protects the cattle and sheep. ”
Word stove
After the small year, every household begins to "busy year". Lu Southwest, twenty-three steamed rice cakes, twenty-four sweeping houses, twenty-five steamed steamed steamed buns, twenty-six pigs, twenty-seven and twenty-eight ping-pong firecrackers, twenty-nine, thirty packs of flat food, busy. Linqing, the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, the King of the Stove went to heaven; the twenty-fourth of the Waxing Moon, the family swept the house; the twenty-fifth of the Waxing Moon, the cutting of paper paste windows; the twenty-sixth of the Waxing Moon, the slaughter of sheep and stewed pork; the twenty-seventh of the Waxing Moon, the killing of the big rooster; the twenty-eighth of the Waxing Moon, the boiling of dates to put the noodles; the twenty-ninth of the Waxing Moon, the Spring Festival.
After resigning, it is said that the gods go to heaven, there are no taboos, and those who are poor and cannot become a gift are mostly married in these days, which is called "chaotic age", so there is a proverb cloud: "Whether he has money or not, marry a daughter-in-law for the New Year." "Nowadays, most of the rural areas still get married at the end of the year, which is a reflection of this custom. (Selected from the Folklore Of Shandong Province, some of the pictures come from the Internet, infringement must be deleted)