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After Wei Ya Celebration, the Chinese or Taoists will concentrate on the 24th Day of Lunar 12 Month or La Yue.
Reason, this is a Day that being considered as the Day for Kitchen Deity to return to the Celestial Palace for "Annually" Reporting of the Credits & Merits of Mortals to Jade Emperor and other Recording Officer in the Heavenly Realm and so, the Chinese & Taoists will have to prepare some Offerings for Kitchen Deity before Sending-Off.
In the Ancient Era (till about 150 years ago from now), Only the Kitchen Deity will be the "targeted Deity" that the Mortals will send off, whereas today, folks also Send Off the Home Deities (which is not an appropriate or accurate practice, this is why, a few of the other dialect groups don't have the practice of Sending Off Deities).
According to Chinese Custom Records, different Dates for Sending Off of Kitchen Deity are being allocated to different Group of People (according to the ranking, position, reputation, etc).
For Officer Rank and above (in today's term: White Collar Group), the Sending Off Date for the Kitchen Deity in their Premises was fixed on the 23rd Night before 11.00Pm.
For Rich-man and normal commoners (in today's term: Blue Collar Group), the Sending Off Date for the Kitchen Deity in their Premises was fixed on the 24th Day Morning.
Whereas the "un-reputable" groups, such as robbers, bandits, low-class-workers, etc, the Sending Off Date for the Kitchen Deity in their Premises was fixed on the 25th Day before Dawn (this was not known by much people cos in later part of the History, this was being strike off from the records).
So who will usually lead the Send Off Ceremony?
In the Ancient Era, Only the house owner or a Male-member in the family could do the Sending Off.
So, during the Sending Off, what must be prepared?
In order to allow Kitchen Deity to say Good things about you and you family during the Reporting, you must prepared sweet stuffs to offer to Kitchen Deity (a form of un-intensionally bribing). Such sweet stuffs can consist of Nian Gao (The Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake), Sesame Candies, Ji Hong (a type of Traditional Chinese Jelly-like Cake), Mandarins, etc.
For some families, they will prepare cooked cuisines such as whole chicken, fishes, seafood, etc, to offer to Kitchen Deity before the Sending Off.
Some will even offer Good-quanlity Wine to Kitchen Deity during the paying respect ceremony – to make him "drunk".
After about 15-30 minutes of offering, the house owner will have to seek permission from the Kitchen Deity by throwing of the Divination Block to see whether the Kitchen Deity is ready to set-off. If the Divination Block shows Yin-Yang sign, meaning that he is ready to travel back to Heaven, if not, Wine or Tea must be offered again till he’s willingly to set-off.
Once the Divination Block shows Yin-Yang sign, the house owner will have to burn off the incense-paper & Song Shen Ma for Kitchen Deity, and the whole Ceremony will consider to be completed.
So what is Song Shen Me (送神馬)?
Song Shen Ma aka Shen Ma (神馬) or Song Shen Jia Ma (送神甲馬) is a type of incense-paper that got picture of a Horse and an Assistant being printed.
During Sending Off, the Song Shen Ma will be used and for Inviting back of Kitchen Deity, Ying Shen Ma (迎神馬 with a Sedan Chair and 4 assistants) will be needed.
In the Ancient Era, folks believed that, when Kitchen Deity returned to the Celestial Palace, he needed to reach the Palace within a certain allocated-timing or so by riding a Horse, Kitchen Deity wouldn’t be delayed. And while he's returning to the Mortal World, he could sit inside a Sedan Chair to relax and allowed the 4 assistants to slowly-sway the Sedan around till they returned to the Mortal World (a joyous occasion to return to the Mortal World during the New Year period).
Today, due to lack of people giving advises to the usage of such incense-paper, a lot of people tend to use the same type of paper to do the Sending Off and Inviting Back.
So when is the Inviting Back?
According to Ancient Records, there were 2 Dates.
One of the Eve of Lunar New Year (年除夕), Kitchen Deity must be back on the Eve to join in the Celebration of Ushering in the New Year.
2nd, on the 4th Day of Lunar New Year (農曆正月初四日). This Day was being added into the custom much later.
So during the Inviting Back, what shall must prepared?
Usually simple offerings like Tea, a Set of Oranges, Incense-paper & Ying Shen Ma are prepared.
The Inviting Back will usually be done in the late noon. Some families will only do that after Sunset.
Preparation for the Sending-off Ceremony for Kitchen Deity 送神儀式
ReplyDeleteDear All,
Today is the 23rd Day of Lunar 12 Month, which is also the Eve for the Sending-off of Kitchen Deity to Heaven for the Annual Reporting. Have you made the necessary preparation?
For those who have prepared, then you all can relax a bit, for those who have not, do quick and go do your preparation.
What are the necessary items that needed to be prepared?
Here are some quick recommendations (according to Hokkien Custom):
1 – Nian Gao
2 – 1 set of 5 Oranges
3 – 6 sets of Traditional Cookies
4 – 6 sets of Vegetarain Items
5 – 3 cups of Wine
6 – 3 cups of Tea
7 – Huat Kueh
8 – Some flowers (5 colours)
9 – Paper-offerings (normal incense-papers & the Sending-off papers - refer to below attachment, do not use the Wrong One)
Once the clock strikes 0000 Hour tonight, the Sending-off can start. If cant, then can do it in the morning before 0900 Am.
Usually the Leading Man of the family will do the Sending-off, if not the eldest person at home will do it.
Sending-off Paper (送神甲馬)
Ushering-back Paper (迎神甲馬)
I guess the mis-conception of sending back home deities started when the actual way is not properly spread and when people start saying "Sung Sin" instead of "Sung Zao Koon".
ReplyDeleteBtw, do people still offer joss sticks to "Zao Koon Gong" during the period of (after Sending and Before Inviting)?
Hahahaha, yup, you are right, this is one of the mistakes that being mislead by the "saying" & "hearing"...
ReplyDeleteYes, we do continue offer our incenses, cos in the Other Realms, they still will get our offerings.
Haha, 人云亦云. An even more common scene now, when a lot of things start to appear.
ReplyDeleteI see. So, the joss sticks would have to carry on.
Thanks.
Yes, incense is a form of media to transfer our requests and messages to the Deities, no matter where they are, we can still communicate with them.
ReplyDeleteHi Jave,I read in an other article you wrote about sending off,that if its not possible to have the sending off papers then the cermony or offerings should not be done.
ReplyDeleteIf can't have the sending off and ushering in,then can have offerings on the new day of the year?
If dont have the offerings, den I will advised not to perform the Sending Off, just normal Honouring will do.
ReplyDeleteHi Jave,
ReplyDeleteDo you mean that if can't perform sending off,then do a normal honouring on the 24th,or do a normal honouring during the springfestival?
For both.
ReplyDeleteHi Jave.
ReplyDeleteI read in your article that when sending off, can do it during the Zi hour of the 24th day or between 4-9 am.Is this the best timing and 9-11 second best?
This year i will again do the normal honouring.Can i also choose between these 3 timing when doing the honouring?
Hi OD,
ReplyDeleteYes, pls do so. As long as the timing suits you, it will be fine.
For normal people, we will do on 24th Day. So best for you to do it on the day and not on the last date.
Hi Jave,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if its appropriate to just stand before the stove doing the normal honouring on the 24th, or is it more respectfull to(when doing the normal honouring on the 24th) kneel down before the stove when offerings are in place on the stove and the honouring can start,etc?
Thanks.
Actually standing and do your sending off is good enough.
ReplyDelete