Little New Year
Little New Year, which falls about a week before the lunar New Year, is also
known as the Festival of the Kitchen God, the deity who oversees the moral
character of each household. In one of the most distinctive traditions of Spring Festival, a paper image of the Kitchen God is burnt on Little New Year,
dispatching the god's spirit to Heaven to report on the family's conduct over
the past year. The Kitchen God is then welcomed back by pasting a new paper
image of him beside the stove. From this vantage point, the Kitchen God will
oversee and protect the household for another year. The close association of the
Kitchen God with the Lunar New Year has resulted in Kitchen God Festival being
called Little New Year. Although very few families still make offerings to the
Kitchen God on this day, many traditional holiday activities are still very
popular.
Studies of popular Chinese religion indicate that the Kitchen God did not
appear until after the invention of the brick cooking stove. The cooking stove
was a fairly late development in the history of human civilization. Ancient
writings indicate that the Fire God, the earliest form of the Kitchen God, was
worshipped long before the stove was invented. Zhu Rong, China's ancient Fire
God was a popular folk deity and had many temples built in his honor. Stone lined firepits, an early
form of the brick stove, are still commonly used among China's ethnic
minorities. People in these regions make offerings to the Firepit God. The
Firepit God appeared between the Kitchen God and the Fire God in the history of
Chinese folk deities. The Kitchen God appeared soon after the invention of the
brick stove. The Kitchen God was originally believed to reside in the stove, and
only later took on human form. Legend has it that during the Later Han Dynasty, a poor farmer named Yin Zifang was making
breakfast one day shortly before the Lunar New Year, when the Kitchen God
appeared to him. Although all Yin Zifang had was one yellow sheep, he sacrificed
it to the Kitchen God. Yin Zifang soon became rich. To show his gratitude, Yin
Zifang started sacrificing a yellow goat to the Kitchen God every winter on the
day of the divine visitation, rather than during the summer as had been
customary. This is the origin of the Kitchen God Festival, or Little New Year.
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.
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