Have You Taken Care of Your Kitchen God?
Posted by Tea Shepard on Jan 18, 2012
One of the wonderful facets of enjoying teas from around the world is being exposed to the culture and traditions of tea producing countries. While we all turned the calendar on December 31st at midnight and welcomed the arrival of a chronolgical New Year, in China and many other countries in Asia, the arrival of the traditional Lunar New Year is the more significant holiday, ushering in almost two weeks of celebrations, customs and superstitions. Which brings us to your "Tsao Chun" or Kitchen God.
His image would be hung in the kitchen in a prominent location at the beginning of the Lunar New Year. From his perch, perhaps right over or next to the stove, he would keep an eye on how everyone behaved in the kitchen. After observing your family in the kitchen for the year, his image is then taken down a week before the arrival of the next Lunar New Year begins and burned so that the smoke will rise up to Heaven where he would report on your family to the Jade Emperor.
In order to insure a good report, some families would smear honey on his lips before burning the image so that only sweet reports would come from his mouth. Sugar and sweet pastries would also do the trick. Other families were less trustful, worrying that even after sweetening the lips of Tsao Chun that he still might not deliver a good enough report. In order to keep things quiet they coated his mouth with sweet sticky rice so he couldn't open his mouth to make any kind of report.
The Lunar New Year arrives January 23rd this year so if you haven't taken down your Kitchen God yet, now is the time. Grab a jar of honey and a match and send him on his way. If you've not had a Kitchen God to help watch over your kitchen in the past, maybe this is the year to start if you can be on your best behavior in the kitchen in 2012.