Kitchen God 灶君
灶君 watches your household all year from above the stove, then reports to Heaven a week before the new year. Sweeten his mouth before he goes.
司命灶君 · 灶神 · 送灶上天
The Altar of the Kitchen God
司命灶君 watches over the family from above the hearth all year, then rides to Heaven to report on the household. Offer incense, then offer him sweet malt (糖瓜) and send him off to “speak sweetly” of your home. 上天言好事，下界保平安。
History & feast day · 簡介
The Kitchen God (灶神 / 司命灶君) lives above the family hearth and quietly observes the household all year. Days before the New Year he ascends to report each family’s conduct to the Jade Emperor — so people offer sweets (糖瓜, sticky malt sugar) to ensure he “speaks sweetly,” then welcome him home on New Year’s Eve. The custom is over two thousand years old.
臘月廿三 / 廿四 · 祭灶 / 送灶 — offer sweet malt and send the Kitchen God to Heaven; welcome him back on 除夕 (New Year’s Eve).
A devotional altar for guidance & reflection.
The household inspector
The Kitchen God observes the conduct of the family throughout the year and ascends on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month to make his report to the Jade Emperor.
The customary response is charmingly pragmatic: his paper image is smeared with malt sugar or honey — either to sweeten his words, or to gum his mouth shut. The image is then burned to send him up, and a fresh one pasted at new year.
Offerings
Sweet things above all. Sticky candy, malt sugar, sweet rice.
Common questions
When does he leave?
The twenty-third or twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month, depending on region.
Why sugar?
To sweeten his report — or to stick his mouth closed. The tradition enjoys the ambiguity.
Where does his image go?
Above the stove, replaced each new year.