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.
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.
When a family makes offerings to the Kitchen God,it is in the hopes that he will ask Heaven to protect their household.According to an old maxim,"In Heaven good deeds are reported,on Earth safety is ensured." The new image of the Kitchen God is not pasted up until Lunar New Year's Eve or New Year's Day,in a ceremony known as "welcoming back the Kitchen God." According to a saying from southern China,"On the twenty-fourth day he ascends to Heaven; on New Year's Day he returns to Earth."