April 11th, 2016 | Published in CCFSO by admin
This week, we will be talking about the Kitchen God Festival, also known as “Xiao Nian” (Small Chinese New Year) in Chinese.
The Kitchen God Festival is celebrated on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month. Chinese families believe that the Kitchen God will return to Heaven before the Chinese New Year to report on the activities of every household over the past year to his superior — the Jade Emperor. Because the Jade Emperor will either praise or punish the family based on the Kitchen God’s report, families will “butter up” the Kitchen God by giving him offerings.
There are many folk tales in Chinese culture about the Kitchen God, and most of them share similarities. In general, the Kitchen God is thought to have been a man who abandoned his wife and ended up living in misery. As he was begging on the street, he encountered his former wife. The woman took pity of him and offered him food. Stricken by the woman’s graciousness, the man felt ashamed of his behavior and took his life away by throwing himself into the kitchen hearth.
During Kitchen God Festival, families clean the kitchen and offer candies to the Kitchen God. The candies are usually made of grains — sesame, glutinous rice or barley. The shape varies from long bars covered with sesame or round, melon-like shaped candy. All these candies must be sweet and sticky, as people hope to “seal up” the Kitchen God’s mouth to prevent bad reports. Children love the Kitchen God Festival: it is not only the beginning of Chinese New Year, but they get to eat lots and lots of candy. Who wouldn’t love that!
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