Worship of Kitchen Gods - beautiful custom of Tet

Offerings to the Land Genie and Kitchen Gods on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month (Photo: laodong.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) –Worshipping “Ong Cong, Ong Tao” (Land Genie and Kitchen Gods) is along-standing custom of great significance as it symbolises the farewell to allbad things of the old year to help people relaxedly enter a new year of peaceand happiness.

The Land Genie and KitchenGods worshipping ritual is held on the 23rd day of the 12th lunarmonth, which falls on January 25 this year. It is also considered the start ofthe Lunar New Year (Tet) festival - the biggest and most important traditional holiday for Vietnamese.

As the legend goes, “Ong Cong”(Land Genie) is the one in charge of land while “Ong Tao” (Kitchen Gods), consistingof two males and one female, are those who keep a watch over kitchen affairs of a family. They take note of a family’s issues in a year and will ridecarps back to the Heaven on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month to report all the good and bad things of that family to the God ofHeaven.

Given this, Vietnamese peoplebelieve that the Land Genie and Kitchen Gods are decisive to the good or badluck and blessing for their families.

Golden carps farmed in Thuy Tram village of Tuy Loc commune, Cam Khe district (Phu Tho province), to serve the worship of the Land Genie and Kitchen Gods (Photo: VNA)

Besides, people also view theimage of a carp swimming upstream and then leaping over the falls to turn into adragon as a symbol of steadfastness in surmounting challenges to securesuccess.

Wishing for good luck in thenew year, people hold a ceremony on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month to send off the Land Genie and Kitchen Gods to the Heaven. Rituals arenot necessarily complicated but need to be solemn and show the family’ssincerity.

Rituals and offerings vary accordingto region. Typically, apart from lamps, incense, votive papers, fresh flowers,and a five-fruit tray, there is also a tray of traditional dishes such assteamed sticky rice, chicken, pork pie, fried spring rolls, and bamboo shootsoup. However, depending on each family’s conditions, people can also preparevegetarian dishes as offerings.

Golden carps are released after the worshipping ritual as people believe they will carry the Kitchen Gods to the Heaven (Photo: VNA)

The offerings also include a set of votivepaper clothes and, especially, golden carps - the “vehicle” for the gods toreturn to the Heaven. People often prepare two or three live carps and thenrelease them into a river or lake after the worshipping ritual with the beliefthat the fish will carry the gods to the Heaven. Nowadays, live carps can alsobe replaced with paper ones, which will be burned together with other paperofferings after the ritual.

The worshipping ceremony is conventionallyheld at any times from the noon of the 22nd day of the 12th lunar month to the noon of the next day because people believe the gods willleave for the Heaven after midday and thus, if the ritual is conducted after that, they would be unable to receive offerings.

With the appropriate practiceof the Land Genie and Kitchen Gods worship, people can help uphold and pass down traditional cultural values in the modern life./.

VNA