Ceremony of An Tai Sui – Invitation of Lord Tai Sui of the Year (安奉值年太歲儀式)

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Lord Tai Sui, a Taoist Deity that look into issues that are associated with Year (值年), Age (領歲), Life (注生) & Death (統死).

In Taoism, each Lunar Year, a new Tai Sui will be appointed to "stand on Guard" (a total of 61 Lord Tai Sui including 1 main In-charge of the other 60 Lord Tai Sui). While the Tai Sui is on Duty, he will be the Only Deity that leads the other Deities to provide the necessary Blessings for the Living Beings and look into the requests of different beings.

This is why, in our Chinese Deity Records, Lord Tai Sui is always a highly respected Deity.

Nowadays, due to the commercial value that honouring Tai Sui can gain, a lot of Non-Taoist Religions also try to conduct Rituals/Ceremony that Pay Respect to Lord Tai Sui, which this is not appropriate and can be useless.

For those who really wish to get the blessing from our Lord Tai Sui on Duty, must visit any Taoist Temples or engaged any Authorized Taoist Spiritual Masters to conduct the honouring session (not Mediums or Geomancy Masters).

So what is the invitation of Lord Tai Sui about?

Invitation of Lord Tai Sui, in Chinese known as An Tai Sui (安太歲) or Feng Tai Sui (奉太歲), meaning inviting Lord Tai Sui into one's home.

Bu doing so, Lord Tai Sui will be able to provide the necessary blessings for the family in that Year and also allowed Lord Tai Sui to receive the direct-offerings from the family.

How these invitations of Lord Tai Sui come about?

This will have to trace back to the far Ancient Era in China.

According to records, Invitation of Tai Sui or An Tai Sui is a very old Practice that the Chinese or Taoists will perform after Li Chun Day (立春日后) to invite in Lord Tai Sui to one's home.

In the Ancient Era, Temples don’t really dedicate Altars to Lord Tai Sui, for those who wished to pay respect or honour Lord Tai Sui will have to think of ways to attain the direct connection with him and so, after certain era, the practice of Inviting of Lord Tai Sui to one's home was being spread around among the Chinese & Taoists. And this Practice was being passed-down till today.

So how shall one go about with the Invitation?

Usually by engaging an Authorized Taoist Spiritual Master or visit any Taoist Temples to get the Invitation done.

Upon engaging the Taoist Master, after the necessary chanting and reporting (with the Taoist Spiritual Petition 安奉太歲疏文), he will pass one Lord Tai Sui Talisman (正統道教值年太歲符) to one self. Once this Lord Tai Sui Talisman is being enhanced and passed to one self, one self will need to set up an Altar for the Talisman at home. After putting up the Talisman, this means that Lord Tai Sui is being invited into ones home for blessing. This is what we called An Tai Sui in Chinese.

A few things to take note while setting up the Altar:

1 – Position for the Lord Tai Sui Talisman must be higher than the Deities at home. Unless the Deities being honour at home are San Qing (三清), Jade Emperor of Heaven (玉皇), Dou Mu (斗姆), Si Yu (四御) or San Guan (三官)

2 – After bringing the Talisman home, one self shall offer incenses immediately while setting up the Altar, no delaying is allowed.

3 – Non-stop offering of incenses, teas and simple offerings for the next three days after setting the Altar.

4 – After the Altar is being set-up, report to Lord Tai Sui that you are inviting him to "sit" on the "Main Seat (上座)", invite him onto the Seat and start offering the necessary offerings.

5 – After inviting Lord Tai Sui onto the seat, do make a simple report to the other Deities at home.

Due to the mix-&-match Culture, most of the Lord Tai Sui Talismans that being used nowadays are not the correct one. Once a wrong Lord Tai Sui Talisman is being used, how powerful the enhancement made is also consider no use. So do be beware of this, do not just blindly follow the trend.

So what shall be prepared while doing the Invitation?

Here are some recommended items for one self to prepare:

1 – A new Table (新桌)

2 – A new set of Table-banner (usually with Auspicious Embroidery sewed on it 桌圍)

3 – A new Urn (新香爐)

4 – A set of Candle-holder (燭台) or A set of Electric Light (紅燈)

5 – An Oil-lamp (constant lighting till sending-off day 油燈)

6 – 6 Traditional Candies/Cookies & 6 Vegetarian Items (六甜六素)

7 – A set of 5 Mandarin Oranges (五顆桔子)

8 – A Nian Gao (年糕)

9 – A Huat Kueh (發糕)

10 – A set of 5 Ang Bao (this refers to the Buns that being painted Red 五顆紅包)

11 – A set of 5 Ang Ku Kueh (五片紅龜粿)

12 – 3 cups of Chinese Tea (三杯清茶) & 3 Cups of Rice White (三杯米酒)

13 – Incense-paper (3 Tian Gong Paper 三份天公金, 3 Normal Paper 三分壽金, Tai Sui Robe 太歲袍)

After the preparation, Invite in the Tai Sui and Place the Tai Sui Talisman and paste onto the Wall or Holding-object in front of the Altar.

After the Talisman is being put up, light the Incenses and pay respect to Lord Tai Sui, report the name of one self and the name of other members of the family. Once the report is being made, do the necessary requesting and then make 3 bows and leave the spot.

For the First 3 Days, the Incenses cannot be stopped. In-order to make things easy, one self can prepare the Coil-incenses (塔香/環香) that can go-on for 24 hours, this is much safer.

So when to do offering to Lord Tai Sui that being invited to ones home?

On every 1st & 15th Day.

On every Big Festival and also, the Birthday of Lord Tai Sui, which fall on the 19th Day of Lunar 7 Month (just need to prepare the same offerings that being mentioned above).

So when to send off Lord Tai Sui?

Usually this will be done on the Day while the family send-off the Kitchen Deity, which means the 24th Day of Lunar 12 Month (農曆十二月二十四日).

Due to Folks Culture, some will do it before Dong Zhi aka Winter Solstice (冬至).

On the day of the sending-off, simple offerings must be prepared. 3 sets of Tian Gong incense-paper (天公金 the big size one), 3 sets of Shou Jin incense-paper (壽金 the normal size one), a set of Lord Tai Sui paper-robe (太歲袍), a set of Gui Ren incense-paper (貴人紙 the red-color paper-offering will a lot of Officer-figurines being printed) and some Sending-off Jia Ma (送神甲馬 Horse offering-paper).

After the preparation, make a short report to Lord Tai Sui that the New Year is coming, the family will be making invitation for the New Lord Tai Sui in for the New Year and will sincerely invite the current Lord Tai Sui back to the Heaven, thank him for the blessing of the Year.

Once the report is being made, one self can take down the old Lord Tai Sui Talisman and then together, bring the incense-papers and burn them off.

After the burning, clear the Altar and then prepared for the next invitation of Lord Tai Sui.