Lunar Year Customs – 13th Day of Lunar New Year (農曆正月習俗之初十三吃暗糜(稀飯)配芥菜)

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Thirteenth Day of Lunar New Year, a Day to do preparation for the 15th Day and also a Day for the Folks to rest after the 2 weeks of busily doing visiting and eating.

For Hokkien Traditional Custom, on the Night of 13th Day, the folks will prepared congee and then eat the congee with the preserved-vegetable known as Dua Chye (大菜) or Kua Chye (芥菜) (Mustard).

Reason, to let the stomach has some rest before the next Grand Eating starts on the 15th Day or 14th Night.

Due to Health consciousness, a lot of people tend not to eat preserved items and so, today, a lot of folks don’t really practice or know about this custom.

Besides the Hokkien eating the congee with preserved-mustard, the Chinese will also start to ground Glutinous Rice (糯米) for making Yuan Xiao (元宵 a type of Tang Yuan 湯圓 eaten during Yuan Xiao Festival).

Once the Glutinous Rice is being grounded, the Chinese will gather the whole family around to start preparing the Yuan Xiao.

So what other practices do Chinese or Taoists practice?

For Taoists, they will light an Oil Lamp (油燈) and then placed it on the Kitchen Stove (廚房灶頭), this is a form of paying respect to the Kitchen Deity aka Zao Jun (灶君). In Chinese, this is known as Dian Zao Deng (點灶燈) or Dian Zao Tou Guang Ming Deng (點灶頭光明燈).

This is to request for Blessing from Kitchen Deity and also other Family Deities.

This Lamp will last for 3 – 5 Days until the 15th Days Celebration is over.

Some Folks will also prepare some simple offerings such as Oranges (桔子), Nian Gao (年糕), Traditional Cookies and Paper-offerings to pay respect.