VietNamNet – On December 23 (lunar calendar), Vietnamese see off the Kitchen Gods to bring the year’s news of the household to the Jade Emperor. VietNamNet displays the customs with a picture-based storyline. 

From long ago, people believed that on December 23, the Kitchen Gods will go to brief the Jade Emperor with household news, and pray for luck, prosperity and happiness.

At the day, Vietnamese people have custom of worshipping Ong Tao (the Kitchen Gods), who will bring household report to the Jade Emperor, and Ong Cong (the Land Genie), who is manager of each house’s land.

A typical Vietnamese woman, Nguyen Thi Ai from Trung Hoa Village in Hanoi is busy with the traditional worship on the day when the Kitchen God goes to see the Jade Emperor. She is preparing a small party to see him off. Here she is going home after buying votive offerings for the Gods. (More photos are shown below)

The custom originated from a myth that dates from ancient times. There was a couple, so poor that they had to go far away to earn their living, and they lost their way, and each other in the process.

After a long time, the wife married another man, unable to find her husband. When one day the first husband unintentionally called at her house to beg for food, the old couple recognised each other immediately.

Feeling sad and embarrassed at the situation and the infidelity, the wife jumped into a fire and burned to death. The first husband, feeling his wife’s anguish, also jumped into the fire. Soon after, the new husband did the same, as he had lost his only love.

Hearing about the threesome’s faithful love, the Jade Emperor permitted them to live together as the Kitchen Gods to enjoy the blessings.

On the festival day held for Ong Tao people usually prepare steamed sticky rice with sugar porridge, truncated cone-shaped cookies made of sticky rice, and incense and flowers for a worship ceremony.

They also prepare a basin of water in which they put a live carp or three small ones. After the ceremony, the carp is released into the pond or the river, for two reasons.

First, as popular thinking goes, the carp can swim well and it will pass Heaven's gate to become a dragon. Thus, the Kitchen Gods ride a carp to heaven.

Second, the custom of releasing the carps refers to the releasing animals, such as birds into the air and the beasts into the forest, considered a kind-hearted gesture of goodwill to pray for good luck.

The custom of worshipping Ong Cong and Ong Tao as the Land Genie and the three Kitchen Gods has a humanist value, reflecting family happiness. The fire in the kitchen manifests not only the cosy family union, but also the bumper harvest and agricultural development.