How many kinds of kitchen gods did old Beijing offer?

There used to be two kinds of kitchen gods in old Beijing. One is a golden stove dedicated all year round. There are two seats and one seat. If the admirer has a spouse, it will be provided to the kitchen god and the grandmother of the kitchen king. It's for two seats. If there is no spouse, a single seat will be provided.

Golden stove is woodcut, watercolor printing, relatively fine, with the date of the 24 solar terms printed on it. Most of the donors are farmers and small families in the city. Stick it on the top of the stove, and put a couplet on it, which reads: God said it well; Return to the palace for good luck. Horizontal approval is: the head of the family. Weekdays should be: morning and evening worship; A furnace of incense in the morning and evening. Take down the stove and burn it on the 23rd night of the twelfth lunar month. Please put a new one on the 30th New Year's Eve of the twelfth lunar month.

The other is that a large family doesn't provide a gold stove on weekdays, and on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, they temporarily go to the incense wax shop to invite a so-called cooking stove. This is a rough woodcut, watercolor printed paper with the words "God of Life" on it. That night, it was placed in the center of the square table behind a wooden paper clip.

After dinner on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, all the stoves used for offering money and cooking will be lit, and the whole family will get together and put three to five bowls of Guandong sugar, honeydew melon and Nantang sugar, a bowl of cold water and a plate of forage on the altar. Cold water and forage are for the horse that the chef rides. ) set incense burner, wax string and other suppliers.

At the beginning of the sacrifice, the special little red wax of sheep oil was lit, which was called Xiao Shuang Bao. One or two pieces of yellow money, thousands of pieces, and ingots are pressed under the wax string respectively.

In some families, men worship first and women worship later.

After incense, kowtow three times in turn according to seniority, and then stand for ten minutes.

When the incense is about to burn out, after kowtowing three times, please put down the incense root and put it in the money-grain basin (big basin made of pig iron) in the yard with the pine branches and sesame stalks prepared in advance, and some even set off firecrackers. While burning, I prayed and said, Old Kitchen God, say something nice!

After the sacrifice, all the offerings such as Kwantung Sugar were taken out and chopped. First put a small piece of broken sugar in each furnace, which is called sticking the mouth of the old kitchen god. Then share it with the rest of the family.

There has always been a saying in Beijing that it is called the furnace for offering sacrifices to the poor. The palace gate or rich gentry pay great attention to ostentation and extravagance when offering sacrifices to stoves. They not only offered rich offerings, but also made the Kwantung Sugar look like a big iron tower, and also made the old kitchen god ascend to heaven.

As for those poor families, it is different. They just put a bowl of cold water on the kitchen table or the hanging plate on the wall, light three incense sticks, knock three vegetarian heads and burn the kitchen stove on the spot, even if the sacrifice is over.

The beginning of offering sacrifices to stoves indicates the arrival of the Spring Festival, which is called too young by old Beijingers. In the past, all trading places (businesses) had three accounting rules, and all accounts receivable should be settled.

So from the beginning of offering sacrifices to stoves, people were sent out to collect debts. People who can't pay their debts will run out to hide their debts and come back to spend New Year's Eve with their families when they meet God.