Introduction to the sacrificial stove of the sacrificial stove, the origin of the sacrificial stove

The sacrificial stove is a custom that has a great influence on the Han people in China and spreads widely.

In the old days, almost every stove was equipped with a "stove king" shrine.

People call this god "Commander Bodhisattva" or "Commander of the Stove", and the people of Izumi are generally called "Commander of the Stove".

Legend has it that he was in charge of the fires of each house and was worshipped as the protector of the family.

Most of the shrines of the king of the stove are located in the north or east of the stove room, and the statue of the king of the stove is offered in the middle.

The folk proverb says: "Twenty-three, the priest of the stove". The twenty-third day of the lunar month is the day of worship to the god of the stove.

Most of the statues of the Lord of the Stove are also printed with the calendar of the year, and the words "the master of the East Kitchen", "the god of supervision in the world", and "the head of the family" are written to indicate the status of the god of the stove.

On both sides, the couplet "Heaven says good things, and the lower world keeps peace" is pasted to bless the safety of the whole family.

At that time, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the stove king wanted to say something.

The worship of the god of the stove has a long history. The god of the stove belongs to one of the "five rituals", and it is recorded in the "Book of Rites and Quli" that the "five rituals of the Son of Heaven are sacrificed", that is, the door, the household, the well, the stove, and the thunder, which includes the sacrificial stove, that is to say, the people at that time were already worshipping the god of the stove.

It is recorded in the Book of Rites and the Order of the Month: "The month of Mengxia, its emperor Yandi, its god Zhu Rong is defeated, its ritual stove, and the ancestor of the sacrifice." "Emperor Yan and Zhu Rong are regarded as the gods of the stove here.

In ancient history and legends, Emperor Yan and Zhu Rong are both gods of fire, fire is a sign of the beginning of human civilization, and because of fire, food can be further processed, which is a very important cooking step for the ancestors, so people at that time will regard the god of fire as the god of the stove.

There are also those who worship the Yellow Emperor as the god of the stove, because the Yellow Emperor "drills the flint or the fire of the bird to cook the meat", and he began to have cooked food, so he is regarded as the god of the stove.

The origin of the sacrificial stove is as follows:

The sacrificial stove came to worship the god of the stove. Since the beginning of the Xia Dynasty, it is rumored that every year on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the Stove King, the Tai Sui God and the folk gods have to return to the heavenly court to report to the Jade Emperor, especially the Stove King will tell the Jade Emperor about the good and evil in the world, as the basis for the reward and punishment of human beings, so most people worship the gods and the Stove King at this time.

The Stove Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation, also known as the Xiao Nian, Xie Festival, and Stove King Festival. The Chinese folk belief is commonly known as "sending the gods", and the Ryukyuan language is called "Yuyuan Jie". The customs of the festival include cleaning, bathing and haircuts, eating dumplings, eating stove sugar, and pasting couplets.

The food to be used in the sacrificial stove

1. Stove sugar. As the saying goes, "Twenty-three, sugar melon sticky", stove sugar is the unique food of the stove festival, there are also places called sugar melon, hemp sugar, Kanto sugar, generally made of maltose, bite crispy, chew sticky teeth, meaning to stick to the mouth of the stove prince, sweet heart, don't talk nonsense in front of the Jade Emperor.

2. Soybeans. Folklore legend stove prince to ride a horse to the sky, but also to the manuscript of the rotten world to the stove key limb prince of the horse to prepare feed, now generally use soybeans to replace the forage, the old tradition in the past will use real forage, after the end of the sacrifice stove, will be burned together with the old statue of the stove king.

3. Cool water. The horse of the king of the stove has something to eat, and he has to drink, and the requirements are not high, just a bowl of clean cold water. There are ballads:

This year is the twenty-third again, send the stove Jun to the west sky, there are strong horses, there are forage, all the way to the wind and safety, the sugar melon for sweet and sweet, please say good words to the Jade Emperor.

4. Rice wine. When sacrificing to the stove, there should be a bowl of rice wine, which is also dedicated to the king of the stove, and the mash should be smeared on the door frame of the kitchen, so that the king of the stove should be drunk and full of joy.

5. Sugarcane. Sugarcane is sweet at both ends, but also symbolizes that the days are getting higher, and it is said that the king of the stove wants to use the tail tip of the sugarcane as a horsewhip to urge the horse to go and return quickly.

6. Baked cakes. In the north, especially in the Central Plains, there must be baked cakes on the day of the sacrificial stove, which is also called "fire burning" in the local area, and is used as dry food on the road to the stove king. On this day, the stalls selling the baked cakes will usher in the best business day of the year, and some brown sugar will be added to the middle of the baked cakes, indicating that the coming year will be prosperous.

1. Legend has it that the prince of the stove is a common man Zhang Sheng, after Zhang Sheng's divorce, the sedan chair made him lonely, begging for a living every day, and when he saw his ex-wife one day, he was ashamed of the wrong things he had done before, and he got into the burning stove.

2. Later, the Jade Emperor knew that he would eventually have a heart of repentance, and ordered him to report to the Jade Emperor on the twenty-third day of the lunar month every year. In order to let the king of the stove say a few good words in front of the Jade Emperor, people sacrifice to the god of the stove on the twenty-third day of the lunar month every year.