How to worship the stove on the New Year's Day

The folk festival of the stove

The time of the stove varies from place to place, the north for the twenty-third of Lunar New Year, the south for the twenty-fourth of Lunar New Year. Han Chinese folk also "official three, four, five" that is, the government in the waxing moon twenty-three, the people in the twenty-fourth, the water family in the twenty-fifth festival.

The Zaowang niche is mostly located in the north or east of the stove room, in the middle of the idol of the Zaowang. If you don't have a Zaowang niche, you can put the image directly on the wall. Some of the idols depict only one person, Zaowang, some have two men and women, the goddess is called "Zaowang grandmother", which is probably an imitation of the image of the couple on earth.

Most of the statues of Zaowang also have the calendar of the year printed on them, with such words as "Master of the East Kitchen", "Supervisor of the Earth", and "Head of the Family" to indicate the status of Zaowang. The book shows the status of the god of the kitchen. On both sides, the couplet "Good things are said in heaven and peace is guaranteed in the lower world" is pasted to bless the whole family with peace and security.

The Zaos offering ceremony is mostly performed at night. When sacrificing zaos, the person who sacrifices zaos kneels in front of the statue of the zaos master and holds a rooster in his arms. Some people also let children kneel after adults holding the rooster. It is said that the rooster is the horse that Master Zao rides to heaven, so the rooster is not called a chicken, but called a horse. If it is a red rooster, commonly known as "red horse", white rooster, commonly known as "white horse".

After burning the incense table, the man of the house poured wine and kowtowed, reciting words. After reading the words, the stove people shouted "lead"! Then the days of wine pouring chicken head. If the chicken's head flutters, it means that Master Zao has already appreciated it. If the head of the chicken does not move, it is necessary to pour again. After the end of the ceremony, people began to eat stove sugar and burnt stove food, some places also eat sugar cake, oil cake, drink tofu soup.