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Celebrating Little New Year: Busy Preparations
2-1-2 Honoring the Kitchen God
There are numerous customs associated with honoring the Kitchen God and
determining the date of the Kitchen God Festival, or Little New Year. The date
of this holiday was sometimes assigned according to location, with people in
northern China celebrating it on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar
month, and people in southern China celebrating it on the twenty-fourth. The
date of Little New Year was also traditionally determined according to
profession. Traditionally, feudal officials made their offerings to the Kitchen
God on the twenty-third, the common people on the twenty-fourth, and coastal
fishing people on the twenty-fifth. The person officiating at the sacrificial
rites was generally the male head of the household.
The evening before Little New Year, the image of the Kitchen God that has
been overseeing the household for the past year is taken down from its position
by the stove. While the image is dried in preparation for burning, offerings and
firewood are prepared. The firewood may include bundles of pine, cypress, holly,
and pomegranate twigs. A new image of the Kitchen God is purchased, and figures
of horses and dogs are plaited out of sorghum stalks. The offerings include
pig's head, fish, sweet bean paste, melons, fruit, boiled dumplings, barley
sugar, and guandong candy, a sticky treat made out of glutinous millet and
sprouted wheat. Most of the offerings are sweets of various sorts. It is thought
that this will seal
the Kitchen God's mouth and encourage him to only say good things about the
family when he ascends to Heaven to make his report. The Kitchen God will be
invited to sit in a sedan
chair for his trip to Heaven. Consequently, the day before Little New Year,
streets and alleyways everywhere are full of vendors selling papermache sedan
chairs and paper gold and silver ingots for the Kitchen God's journey, and
singing songs in his honor.
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