Overview of celebrating the Small New Year
The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is the day of worshiping the kitchen stove. It is commonly known as "Celebrating the Small New Year" among the people. It is also called the Xiaonian, Xiaonianxia and Xiaonian Festival. On this day, sending the Kitchen God to heaven to speak something is called sending the stove, saying goodbye to the stove, and drunkenly commanding orders.
The sacrifice to the stove was carried out on the evening of the 23rd. The portrait of the Kitchen God in the Jiaodong area is posted on the wall of the pot stove in the east of the main house. On both sides is a couplet of "God speaks good things, and returns to the palace to bring good luck", with the horizontal inscription "Head of the family". During the sacrifice, sugar melons, fruits and a bowl of noodle soup are placed, and then incense is burned and the old Kitchen God is removed and burned. This is to send the Kitchen God to heaven. When burning, some grains, grass and miscellaneous grains should be added to feed the Stove King's horses. In the past, there was a saying that "men do not worship the moon, and women do not worship the stove." In Shandong, men usually offer sacrifices, but in En County and Boping, women lead children to burn incense and worship the stove. After the old stove was burned, some posted the new stove at that time, while others posted it on New Year's Eve, so the couplet also has the words "go to heaven on the 23rd and come to the world on the first day of the first lunar month".
Sweet and sticky foods are often used in sacrifices to the stove. Commonly used are sugar melons, dates, etc. Linqu also uses sheep dates and persimmons, Weihai uses glutinous rice cakes and small sugar melons, Wudi, Enxian, Boping, Zhaoyuan, Rizhao and other places also use millet cakes or date cakes. It means to stick the Kitchen God's mouth to prevent him from saying bad things, or to make the Kitchen God's mouth sweet and only say good things. Therefore, Chengwu and other places call it "Tushenkou", and some people actually put it in the Kitchen God's mouth. Stick a small piece of sugar on the stove or on the door of the stove. Some people also put some lees or wine on the door of the stove, which is called "drunk and commanding".
In addition to candied melons and the like, some offerings include water dumplings, which takes the folk meaning of "getting up and dumplings falling on the face", some offer noodles, and some also offer stove horses and stove horses made of straw. Stove chicken, so that the Stove Lord can ride up to heaven and have a smooth journey. After the sacrifice, a farewell ceremony will be held. The family knelt in front of the Stove King statue and kowtowed while burning the old Stove King statue and a paper horse. At the same time, the old man muttered: "Stove God, when you go to heaven, say more good things and less evil words, and bring all the grains with you." Come." Those who urgently need to have children read: "On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen King will go to the West. Talk more about good things and less about evil. Bring a fat boy on the horse's tail." This will be considered as sending the Kitchen God. Gone. In Zichuan, Zhaoyuan and other places, there is still the custom of divination after Ci Zao, that is, going out quietly to listen to people talking to predict good or bad luck.
After resigning from the stove, it is said that the gods go to heaven and there are no taboos. People who are poor and unable to perform rituals often get married at this time, which is called "chaotic year". In ancient times, the 10th day after the Great Cold was called the "Yangzhai Luan Sui", and there was no ban on getting married. Nowadays, many people in rural areas get married at the end of the year.
Sacrifice to the stove
my country’s Spring Festival usually kicks off with a sacrifice to the stove. In the folk song "Twenty-three, Tanggua Guan" refers to the sacrifice to the stove on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year. There is a saying of "officials, three people, four boatmen and five", which means that on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the government, Generally, people hold sacrifices to the stove on the 24th, while people living on the water hold sacrifices to the stove on the 25th.
Sacrificing stoves is a custom that has great influence among Chinese people and is widely spread. In the old days, almost every kitchen had a "Kitchen Lord" statue in the kitchen. People call this god "Si Ming Bodhisattva" or "Zao Lord Siming". Legend has it that he was the "Jiutian East Chef Si Ming Zao Wangfu Lord" conferred by the Jade Emperor. He is responsible for managing the kitchen fires of each family and is regarded as the protector of the family. worship. Most of the Kitchen King's niches are located on the north or east side of the kitchen room, with the statue of the Kitchen King in the middle. Some people who don't have a niche for the Kitchen King stick the statue of the god directly on the wall. Some statues only depict the Kitchen God alone, while others include two men and women. The goddess is called "Grandma Kitchen God". This is probably an imitation of the image of a human couple. Most of the statues of the Kitchen God also have a calendar for that year printed on them, with words such as "Master of the East Chef", "God of Human Supervision", "Head of the Family" and other words written on them to indicate the status of the Kitchen God. The couplets "God says good things, and the lower realms keep you safe" are pasted on both sides to bless the whole family.
The Kitchen God has been staying at home since the last New Year’s Eve to protect and supervise the family; on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will ascend to heaven to report the family’s good deeds to the Jade Emperor in heaven. Or evil deeds, the ceremony of sending off the Kitchen God is called "Sending the Stove" or "Citing the Stove". Based on the report of the Kitchen God, the Jade Emperor handed over the good and bad fortunes that the family should receive in the new year to the hands of the Kitchen God. Therefore, for the family, the Stove Lord’s report is indeed of great interest.
Sending stoves is usually held at dusk and into night. The family goes to the kitchen first, sets the table, offers incense to the Kitchen God in the shrine on the kitchen wall, and offers sugar melons made with malt sugar and noodles. Then tie bamboo strips into paper horses and fodder for livestock. Offering caramel to the Stove Lord is to sweeten his mouth. In some places, sugar is spread around the Stove Lord's mouth, and while applying it, he says: "Say more good things, but don't say bad things." This is to stuff the Stove Lord's mouth with sugar to prevent him from saying bad things. In the Tang Dynasty book "The Chronicles of the Year under the Chariot", there is a record of "smearing wine lees on the stove to make the commander (Kitchen Lord) drunk". After people coated Stove Lord's mouth with sugar, they took off the statue, and the paper and smoke went up to heaven together. In some places, sesame straw and pine branches are piled in the yard at night, and then the Kitchen God statue that has been kept for a year is taken out of the shrine, along with the paper horse and straw, and set on fire. The yard was brightly illuminated by the fire. At this time, the family kowtowed around the fire and prayed while burning: This year is the 23rd again, and I send the Stove King off to the west. There are strong horses, there is fodder, and the journey is smooth and safe. The sugar melon offered is sweet. Please say good things to the Jade Emperor.
When giving gifts to the Kitchen God, in some places there are still several beggars who dress up in disguise and go from house to house singing songs and dancing to the Kitchen God, called "giving the Kitchen God a gift", in exchange for food.
The custom of giving away stoves is very common in the north and south of my country. Mr. Lu Xun once wrote the poem "The Gengzi Presents Stoves": Chickens are given glue and candies, and clothes are offered for petals and incense. If there is nothing growing in the house, there are only a few yellow sheep.
He said in the article "Sends to Zao Lord": "On the day when Lord Zao ascended to heaven, a kind of candy was sold on the street, the size of an orange. We also have this thing, but Bian It's like a thick little pancake. It's called "glue teeth". It's intended to stick to Zao Lord's teeth so that he can't talk bad things to the Jade Emperor. The allusion to "Yellow Sheep" in the poem comes from "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Yin Shi Zhuan": "During the reign of Emperor Xuan, those in Yinzi Fang were extremely filial and benevolent. In the morning of the twelfth lunar month, when the kitchen god appeared, Zifang worshiped and received the food. Qing: The family had a yellow sheep, so they worshiped it. Since then, they have become extremely rich, and have prospered since then. Therefore, they often worship the yellow sheep on the stove during the twelfth lunar month. "Yinzi Fang saw the kitchen god. , killed the yellow sheep as a sacrifice, and later got good luck. From then on, the custom of killing yellow sheep to offer sacrifices to the stove has been passed down.
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the offerings to the stove were quite abundant. Fan Chengda, a poet of the Song Dynasty, gave a very vivid description of folk sacrifices to the stove in his "Ci of Sacrifice to the Stove": According to ancient legend, on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Stove Lord looked up to the sky and wanted to say something. The clouds, the carriages, the wind, the horses, the little ones linger, and there are cups and plates in the house for the feast. The pig's head is overcooked, the fish is fresh, and the rice bait is round with sweetened bean paste and sweet pineapple. The man offers his daughter a drink to escape, and the king is happy to drink wine and burn money. Don't listen to your servants' fights, don't get angry when cats and dogs touch you. I'll send you drunk and full to the gate of heaven. Don't return to the clouds with a long spoon and a short spoon, begging for profit and return points.
The sacrifice of the stove on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is closely related to the Chinese New Year. Because, on the eve of the New Year’s Eve a week later, the Kitchen God came to the world together with other gods with the good and bad luck that the family should receive. The Kitchen God is believed to lead the way for the gods in the sky. The other gods ascend to heaven again after the New Year, but only the Kitchen God will stay in people's kitchens for a long time. The ceremony to welcome the gods is called "receiving the gods", and for the Kitchen God, it is called "receiving the stove". The stove is usually held on New Year's Eve, and the ceremony is much simpler. At that time, you only need to put on a new stove lamp and burn incense in front of the stove niche.
There is a saying that "men do not worship the moon, and women do not worship the stove". In some places, women do not offer sacrifices to the stove. It is said that the Stove Lord looks like a pretty boy and is afraid of women offering sacrifices to the stove. As for the origin of Stove Lord, it has a long history. Among the Chinese folk gods, the Kitchen God is considered to be very old. As early as the Xia Dynasty, he was already a great god respected by the people. According to Kong Yingda Shu in the ancient book "Book of Rites·Etiquette": "Zhuanxu's family had a son, Rili, who was Zhurong and was worshiped as the Kitchen God." "Zhuangzi. Dasheng" records: "The stove has a bun." Sima Biao commented: "The bun, The Kitchen God is dressed in red and looks like a beautiful woman. "Baopuzi. Wei Zhi" also records: "On a dark night, the Kitchen God also goes to heaven to commit crimes." These records are probably the source of worshiping the Kitchen God. Also, it may be said that the Kitchen God is the "Suiren clan" who drills wood to make fire; or it is said to be the "Fire Officer" of the Shennong clan; or it is said to be "Sujili" who "the Yellow Emperor makes the stove"; or it is said that the Kitchen God's surname is Zhang, list, name Ziguo; opinions vary. There is a rather interesting story circulating among the people.
It is said that in ancient times there was a family named Zhang, two brothers, the elder brother was a plasterer and the younger brother was a painter. My brother's specialty is cooking pots. He invites guests from East Street and West Street, and they all praise him for his skill in setting up the stove. He became famous for a long time, and people from thousands of miles around called him "King Zhang Zao". It's strange that the Kitchen King Zhang always likes to meddle in other people's affairs no matter whose house he goes to build a stove. When he meets a noisy wife, he tries to persuade her. When he meets a fierce mother-in-law, he also tries to persuade her. He seems to be an elder. From now on, the neighbors would come to him if anything happened, and everyone respected him. King Zhang Zao lived for seventy years and died late at night on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. When King Zhang Zao passed away, the Zhang family was in chaos. It turned out that King Zhang Zao was the head of the family, and everything in the house was obeyed by his orders. Now that the eldest brother has passed away, the younger brother only knows poetry, calligraphy and painting. Although he is already sixty years old, he has never been in charge. housework. The daughters-in-law of several houses were clamoring for separation, and the painter was helpless and looked sad all day long. One day, he finally came up with a good idea. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the first anniversary of the death of King Zhang Zao, late at night, the painter suddenly called out to wake up the whole family, saying that the eldest brother had appeared. He led his son, daughter-in-law, and the whole family to the kitchen, where they saw the faces of Stove King Zhang and his late wife looming on the dark stove wall, and the flickering candlelight. The whole family was shocked. The painter said: "When I was sleeping, I dreamed that my eldest brother and sister-in-law had become immortals, and the Jade Emperor named him the 'Nine Heavens East Chef, Mingzao Wangfu Lord'. You guys are always good at eating and lazy in cooking, and your sisters-in-law are at odds, disrespectful and unfilial, which makes the family gods uneasy." The eldest brother is very angry when he knows that you are splitting up the family. He is planning to go to heaven and report to the Jade Emperor that he will punish you from the lower realms on New Year's Eve. "After hearing this, the children, nieces and nephews were horrified, and immediately knelt down and kowtowed, and hurriedly got Zhang. The Stove King’s favorite sweets were offered on the stove, and he begged the Stove Lord to forgive him. From then on, the often noisy uncles, brothers and daughters-in-law no longer dared to act out, the whole family lived in peace, and young and old lived peacefully. After this incident was known to the neighbors, they spread the news to tens of thousands, and they all came to Zhang's house to find out the truth. In fact, the Stove King on the kitchen wall on the night of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month was drawn in advance by the painter. He pretended that his eldest brother appeared as a ghost to scare his children, niece and daughter-in-law. Unexpectedly, this method was really effective. So when the villagers came to the painter to inquire about the situation, he had no choice but to fake it and give the painted Stove King portraits to his neighbors.
As time went by, it spread along the countryside, and every household's kitchen was pasted with a statue of the Kitchen King. As time went by, the custom of making offerings to the Stove Lord on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to pray for the safety of the family was formed. After the custom of worshiping stoves spread, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, the imperial palace also included it in sacrifice ceremonies, and the rules for worshiping stoves were established across the country, and it became a fixed ritual.
Sweeping the dust
After the Stove Festival is held, preparations for the New Year begin formally. Every year from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to New Year's Eve, Chinese folk call this period "Spring Day", also called "Dust Sweeping Day". Sweeping dust is the year-end cleaning. It is called "sweeping the house" in the north and "dusting" in the south. Sweeping dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of our people. Every Spring Festival comes, every household has to clean the environment, wash all kinds of utensils, remove and wash bedding and curtains, sweep the Liulv courtyard, dust away dirt and cobwebs, and dredge open ditches and ditches. All over the country, there is an atmosphere of joyful hygiene and cleanliness to welcome the New Year.
Interestingly, there is a rather strange story about the origin of sweeping dust in ancient times. Legend has it that the ancients believed that there was a three-corpse god attached to each person's body. Like a shadow, he followed the person's whereabouts and was inseparable. The Three Corpse God is a guy who likes to flatter and gossip. He often spreads rumors and causes trouble in front of the Jade Emperor, describing the human world as ugly. Over time, in the Jade Emperor's impression, the human world was simply a dirty world full of sin. once. The three corpse gods secretly reported that the world was cursing the Emperor of Heaven and wanted to rebel against the Heavenly Court. The Jade Emperor was furious and issued an edict to quickly find out the chaos in the world. Anyone who resented the gods or despised the gods would have their crimes written under the eaves. Then let the spider build a web to cover it as a mark. The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go down to the realm on New Year's Eve. Anyone who met a marked family would be killed and no one would be spared. Seeing that this plan was about to succeed, the three corpse gods took the opportunity to fly down to the mortal world. Regardless of the crime, they viciously marked the eaves and corners of each house so that Wang Ling Palace could kill them all. While the Three Corpse Gods were doing evil, the Kitchen Lord discovered his whereabouts and was shocked. He hurriedly found the Kitchen Lords of various families to discuss countermeasures. So, they came up with a good idea. From the day when the stove is delivered on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month to the New Year's Eve, every household must clean the house. If the household is not clean, the Stove Lord will refuse to enter. Home. Everyone followed the Stove Lord's instructions before he ascended to heaven, sweeping away the dust, dusting away the cobwebs, cleaning the doors and windows, and making their homes look brand new. When Wang Lingguan went down to inspect the world on New Year's Eve, he found that the windows of every house were bright and clean, the lights were bright, people were reunited and happy, and the world was extremely beautiful. Wang Lingguan couldn't find any sign of bad deeds, and felt very strange. He rushed back to heaven and reported to the Jade Emperor about the peace and happiness in the world and praying for a happy new year. The Jade Emperor was greatly shocked after hearing this, and issued an edict to imprison the three corpse gods. He ordered that they should be slapped three hundred times and imprisoned forever in the heavenly prison. This human disaster was saved thanks to the Kitchen God's rescue. In order to express gratitude to the Stove Lord for helping people eliminate disasters and blessing Zhang Xiang, the people always start sweeping the dust after delivering the stove, and they are busy until New Year's Eve.
The custom of "dusting and sweeping the house on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month" has a long history. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", my country had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the era of Yao and Shun. According to folklore: since "dust" and "chen" are homophones, sweeping dust in the New Year has the meaning of "removing the old and spreading the new", and its purpose is to sweep away all "poor luck" and "bad luck". This custom entrusts people with their desire to destroy the old and establish the new and their prayers to say goodbye to the old and usher in the new.
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"Three Corpse Gods" Taoism refers to the "gods" worshiped in the human body. According to the "Tai Shang Three Corpses Zhong Jing": "The upper corpse is named Peng Guo, and it is in the human head; the middle corpse is named Peng Zhi, and it is in the human belly; the lower corpse is named Peng Jiao, and it is in the human foot." It is also said that every time Gengshen On that day, they went to heaven to report human sins to the Emperor of Heaven; but as long as people stayed up all night on this night, they could avoid it, which was called "Shou Geng Shen".