When is the sacrifice to the stove?

Sacrificing a stove is the custom of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "off-year", but the off-year in the south is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, so it is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month in the south.

Offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, an important activity on this day, involves not only offering honeydew melons and cakes, but also changing the portrait of the kitchen god. When the old portrait of Kitchen God is torn down, every household should "please" come back with a new one. According to folklore, the Kitchen God will report the good and evil of this family to the Jade Emperor every year, so that the Jade Emperor can reward and punish him. Therefore, when sending stoves, people put candy, water, beans and grass on the console table in front of the kitchen god statue; Among them, the last three are the mounts of the kitchen god ascending to heaven. 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. In addition, it is said that on New Year's Eve, the Kitchen God will bring the gods to the world for the New Year, and there will be ceremonies of "receiving the kitchen" and "receiving the gods" on that day. Every family burns sedan chairs and horses, sprinkles three glasses of wine, and sends away the kitchen god, so it's their turn to worship their ancestors.

Sacrificing stoves is a traditional custom with great influence and wide spread among Han people. The folk sacrificial furnace originated from the ancient custom of worshipping fire. Sacrificing a stove is also called sending a stove, because it is said that the next day, the Kitchen King Bodhisattva will report to the Jade Emperor about the "work" of the Kitchen King Bodhisattva and what she has seen and heard in the past year, such as whether food is dumped at home or not, whether fireworks are not cherished and so on.