The twenty-third day of the lunar month is a traditional Chinese folk festival, Xiao Nian, in different places, there are different exquisite, but mainly around the sacrificial stove, as well as sweeping dust to unfold, our local people like to eat this day is the stove king to heaven. Moreover, it is operated by the hostess of the house, and when the "sacrificial stove" is made, the neatly dressed hostess should bow to the lord of the stove. At the same time, Xiao Nian also has the custom of "dusting and sweeping the house", and the old man even said that "one day is not clean, and one year is not clean." "On this day, the inside and outside of the house will be cleaned, and the intention is to sweep away all bad luck and bad luck.
Cleaning, there is not too much attention, is to clean up the home, but the sacrificial stove, there are many kinds of sayings, such as the things to be used for the offering, there are also explanations, what to eat on this day, different places, there are different sayings, in our local area, it is popular "3 things do not offer, the coming year is blessed" saying, the elders even warned us, sacrifice to the god of the stove to understand the rules.
What does the god of the stove do, and why are the people so keen to worship him?
Zheng Xuan's note "The Book of Rites and Notation" records: "(The god of the stove) lives in the world, and the inspector is small, and the one who reprimands is also." "From here, we know that at least in the Han Dynasty, the god of the stove has become a god who inspects the faults of the world and reports to the emperor.
What we often hear is a saying: "The heavens say good things, and the lower realms keep peace". The god of the stove, also known as the Lord of the Stove, the Heavenly Protector of the House, the Lord of the Stove, and the Lord of the Stove, is in charge of the safety of the house, and in traditional Chinese culture, he is considered to be the god responsible for monitoring the daily behavior of family members. In the New Year, every household will sacrifice to the god of the stove, hoping that the god of the stove can say more good things and bring good luck when he goes to heaven.
This is also why, on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, people will hold a ceremony to worship the god of the stove, the purpose is to hope that in the coming year, the reduction will be for themselves.
What are the 3 things that "if you don't offer 3 things, you will have more blessings in the coming year":
The first thing: fishy meat
In our hometown, the New Year is not stained with meat, the family will accompany the stove to eat vegetarian, the most of which is tofu, so we are also called the year of tofu, eat it to keep safe, fish and meat, obviously at this time, it is not suitable to take it to the table, so it is easy to break the precept of a behavior, then in the coming year, it can not bring blessings and good luck to it.
The agricultural proverb also mentions that "the drizzle is wet, the tofu side dishes are ruined", the coarse tea and light rice sacrifice is the best way to sacrifice, the stove prince, as the god in charge of this aspect, of course, can not be special, but also have to be diligent and thrifty.
The second kind: shochu
There is no need to make offerings with soju, mainly because he is afraid of the king of the stove, who drinks too much on this day, and is easy to make mistakes, so people will choose to use clear tea to sacrifice, hoping that he can stay sober, and when God says good things, he can also give himself a few more good words, then life will become more and more prosperous, and the days will be smoother.
The third type: chickens and ducks
Chickens and ducks are also meat and fishy things, in the past, it is rare to be able to eat big fish and meat, chickens and ducks are even rarer, when sacrificing to the king of the stove, you can not eat chickens and ducks, because this is also a meat thing, in ordinary times, it is more to eat some coarse tea and light rice, then in the following days, the god of the stove will go to heaven to help you say good things, if you eat big fish and meat, it means that the day is already very good, then naturally there will not be too much blessing.
Of course, these are just some traditional folk customs, it just wants to tell us that when sacrificing to the god of the stove, we should mainly eat vegetarian food, and at the same time use more sweet food, so that he can help you say a few good words, and the following days will be smoother.