Get To Know The Kitchen God Prayer Rituals Ahead Of Chinese New Year

Dewa Dapur Zao Jun (Sumber: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Approaching the Chinese New Year, Buddhist Chinese usually hold prayer rituals to the gods and ancestors. Including one of them saying a prayer to the Kitchen God. How is the tradition?

Every household that has a place to pray to the Kitchen God will make an offering ceremony to the God on the 26th of the 12th month of Chinese New Year. This was done as a sign of the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

From the remaining 7 days of welcoming the Chinese New Year, there is usually a day that is used to clean the prayer altar both in the temple and at home. The cleaning of the prayer altar and the image of the god when it returns down on the fourth day after the Chinese New Year.

According to Chinese legend, the Kitchen God was sent from Heaven to Earth by the Jade Emperor. This god is in charge of monitoring behavior and recording daily human actions, both positive and negative. Every year the Kitchen God will rise to heaven and report to the Jade Emperor about all records of human behavior. How is the history?

Prayer table (Source: Special)

History of the Kitchen God

As quoted by Tionghoa.info, the Kitchen God originated from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). At that time, the emperor saw that the kitchen was the place where female maids had gathered. The place often became gossip and slander in the palace environment, thus spreading outside and affecting the peace of the surrounding community.

For that, the Emperor ordered that every citizen's house in his kitchen must be installed by the Kitchen God. "A decree was circulated that said the Kitchen God would supervise and record all the words and activities in the kitchen every day," he wrote.

Then every 26th of the 12th month of Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God will go up to the sky to meet the Jade Emperor (Yi Huang Ta Ti), to report all his records regarding the family he supervises.

Therefore, every household who has a place to pray to the Kitchen God will make an offering ceremony to the God on that date. The goal is to lead the Kitchen God to the sky.

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