Kitchen Gods’ Day
24/01/2019Vietnamese people celebrate Kitchen God’s Day is on the 23rd of December (the last month of the Lunar Year). This officially marks the start of the traditional Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year).
On the Kitchen God’s Day, a farewell ceremony is arranged for the Kitchen Gods. The three guardians of the family’s kitchen (as popular fairy tale about 2 men and 1 women” who later would become the trio of Deities of Tao Quan. They will visit heaven to report about the family’s activities in a year.
Normally on the Kitchen God’s Day, preparing a grand farewell for three Deities on their journey to the Heavens, the family will cook/buy a lot of delicacies to offer to the Goods as carp, steamed sticky rice or plain porridge, dilled chicken, paper headpieces, fruits, burn paper clothes, paper carps for use by the Gods on their journeys to heaven. They clean and decorate the altar with fresh flowers. Then they laid three votive paper caps, the yellow one in the middle for Mrs. Tao and two black ones for two Mr. Tao on the altar.
There are the family prepare a large bowl of water with one live big golden carp or three small ones is kept aside. After the worshipping ceremonies are finished, the carps are all alive and will be freed into a river, lake or pond. The people believe that Tao Quan can only travel up to the Heavens with the help of Golden carps.
To Vietnamese people, the kitchen is a very important place which brings everybody in the family together as well as keeps the warmth, harmony and happiness of the famlily. So on 23 rd of the 12th lunar month, the family set a ceremony at home for farewell the Kitchen Gods.
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