There is a saying in the folk that "men do not worship the moon, and women do not sacrifice stoves" Because the stove prince looks like a small white face, he is afraid that the female sacrifice stove will have "male and female suspicions".
The twenty-third day of the lunar month is what we commonly call the "Little Year", and it is also a day to worship the king of the stove. There is a very interesting folk legend about the origin of the stove king.
Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a family surnamed Zhang, there were two brothers, the eldest was a plasterer, and the second was a painter. The boss's best job is the pan stove, the craftsmanship is very good, very famous in the local area, people call him "Zhang Zao Wang".
This Zhang Zao King, in addition to good craftsmanship, is also good at mediating family disputes, neighbors, whoever quarrels and makes a conflict, will find him to reconcile, this Zhang Zao Wang ye is very enthusiastic, so he is deeply respected and loved by the villagers. King Zhang Zao lived to be seventy years old, and when he died, it was the night of the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon.
As the saying goes: "There are a thousand mouths in the family, and there is only one person in charge." As soon as King Zhang Zao died, there was no one in charge of the family, so they made a mess, and several daughters-in-law were clamoring to divide the family property. The second brother usually only paints, regardless of household chores, so he is also helpless, and he does not know how to be good.
Just before the anniversary of King Zhang Zao's anniversary, the painter finally came up with a way. On the night of the twenty-third night of the waxing moon, the first anniversary of the death of King Zhang Zao, the painter suddenly woke up the whole family and said that the eldest brother had appeared.
He led the family to the kitchen, only to see that on the stove wall of the kitchen, in the dim candlelight, the faces of King Zhang Zao and his late wife were faintly revealed, and the whole family was stunned.
The painter said, "I dreamed last night that the eldest brother and sister-in-law had all become immortals, and the Jade Emperor named the eldest brother "Nine Heavens East Kitchen Division Order Stove King's Mansion King." You are lazy and lazy on weekdays, and you have nothing to do, which makes the chickens and dogs in the family restless and the family gods uneasy. The eldest brother was very angry when he found out, and was ready to report to the Jade Emperor and punish you. ”
When the children and nephews and nephews heard these words, they panicked one by one, felt their knees prostrate, and took the sweets that King Zhang Zao usually liked to eat and offered them, and begged King Zhao to forgive them.
From then on, the brothers and uncles of the Zhang family and the concubines and daughters-in-law could coexist harmoniously and never make trouble again. After the neighbors know, pass ten, ten hundred, everyone will come to find out. Later, it was learned that the king of the stove on the wall of the twenty-third stove of the waxing moon was originally painted by the painter in advance and pasted on the wall. I just wanted to scare my children and nephews, but I didn't expect the effect to be so significant.
After the villagers learned of this situation, they came to the painter one after another and asked him to help and give. Paint a portrait of the King of stoves at home. Since then, in ten miles and eight townships, every household has begun to paste the statue of the king on the stove, and on the twenty-third day of the 23rd lunar month, the king of the stove has been sacrificed, and gradually formed a sacrifice custom in the small year. In the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace also listed it as a festival, and the rules of sacrifice stoves were established throughout the country, which became a fixed festival custom.