Tu Di Gong 土地公
The Earth God — the local deity of your specific patch of ground. Modest, approachable, and the first god most Chinese households deal with.
福德正神 · 土地公 · 五穀豐登
The Altar of Tu Di Gong
福德正神, the kindly Earth God, guards the neighborhood and brings everyday luck, good harvests and a safe home. Offer incense, then plant the Field of Fortune and watch your blessing grow. 土生萬物，地載萬財。
History & feast day · 簡介
Tu Di Gong (土地公), the “Lord of the Soil” or 福德正神, is the humble local earth god who guards a particular neighborhood, field or shop. The most widely worshipped of folk deities, he is pictured as a kindly white-bearded grandfather who brings everyday luck, good harvests and a safe home.
二月初二 · 頭牙 / 土地誕 — businesses 做牙 (offer) for a prosperous year; honored again at 八月十五, and on the 初二 & 十六 of each month.
A devotional altar for guidance & reflection.
The nearest god
土地公 is a local official in the celestial bureaucracy, responsible for one neighbourhood, one field, one shop. He is not grand and is not meant to be. He is petitioned for the small, immediate and practical: safety at home, a steady shop, a good harvest.
His feast is the second day of the second lunar month, 頭牙, and the sixteenth day of the twelfth is 尾牙, when businesses hold their year-end dinner in his honour.
Offerings
Simple food, tea, fruit. Shopkeepers across Singapore and Malaysia make a small offering on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month.
Common questions
Why is he so small a god?
Deliberately. He is the local official, not the emperor — and that is exactly why he is approachable.
What is 尾牙?
The year-end company dinner, originally an offering to Tu Di Gong.
How often should I offer?
First and fifteenth of the lunar month is the common rhythm.