Beautiful custom on the day the Kitchen Gods go to heaven

According to folk beliefs, Ong Cong Ong Tao are the gods who govern the land and kitchen of each family. Every year, on the 23rd of December, Ong Cong Ong Tao will ride a carp to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the big and small events that happened in the lower world during the past year. At the same time, they pray for the Jade Emperor to bestow many blessings, luck, convenience, peace... on the homeowner's family in the new year.

Every year, on the 23rd of December - the day of the Kitchen Gods' Festival, from early morning in my hometown, every family is busy preparing a tray of offerings to send the Kitchen Gods to heaven. According to folk beliefs, the Kitchen Gods are the gods who govern the land and the kitchen of each family. Every year, on the 23rd of December, the Kitchen Gods will ride a carp to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the big and small events that have happened in the lower world during the past year. At the same time, they will pray for the Jade Emperor to bestow many blessings, luck, convenience, peace... on the homeowner's family in the new year. On New Year's Eve, the Kitchen Gods will return to the lower world to continue their work of governing the land and looking after the kitchen.

With such a concept, for many years, on the 23rd of December, families have carefully prepared all the offerings and made a tray of offerings to send the Kitchen Gods to heaven. On this day, from early morning, families burn incense to trim the incense sticks, clean the worshiping objects (some families do it a few days earlier), then offer the offering rice. The offering tray often has traditional Vietnamese dishes during Tet holidays such as: chicken, ham, wine, bamboo shoot soup with pig tongue, fried spring rolls, stir-fried vermicelli with chicken gizzards...

In particular, there are two indispensable offerings on the day of sending the Kitchen Gods to heaven: the Kitchen Gods' gold-plated clothes and the carp (the vehicle for the Kitchen Gods to ride to heaven). As for the carp, in addition to the paper carp available in the Kitchen Gods' set, families also offer live carp. On the morning of December 23, when going to the market, people often choose healthy, fast-swimming, and beautifully colored carp to offer with the hope that the carp will take the Kitchen Gods to heaven quickly, smoothly, and with good luck.

**Keeping the beautiful custom, people release carp on the day of the Kitchen Gods' departure to heaven.**
Photo: Thanh Chau

Over the years, the custom of worshiping and releasing carp on the 23rd of December has become a beautiful custom of the Vietnamese people. Depending on each family, some families prepare the offering early, some prepare the offering late, but usually families finish the offering and release the fish before 12 noon. Therefore, around noon on the 23rd of December, in both the city and the countryside around rivers, lagoons, lakes, and ponds, people go to release carp in large numbers. When releasing fish, people often choose sections of rivers, lakes, and ponds with clean water to release fish with the hope that a new year of abundance, prosperity, peace, and happiness will come to the family. Releasing carp on the day of the Kitchen Gods ascending to heaven not only has spiritual significance (for the Kitchen Gods to ride to heaven), but according to Buddhist beliefs, this is an act to nurture compassion, create good karma, guide people to do good deeds, good deeds... Not only that, according to the beliefs of the Vietnamese people, carp is a symbol of the spirit of effort, perseverance in overcoming difficulties to achieve success. The story of carp overcoming the Dragon Gate, carp transforming into a dragon... is always taught by grandparents and parents to their children and grandchildren with the hope that their children and grandchildren must always strive, try to overcome difficulties and rise up in any circumstances.

On the day of the Kitchen Gods’ departure to heaven, despite being busy with work, family members still try to arrange and schedule time to have dinner with their grandparents and parents. At the family reunion dinner, everyone chats and shares what they have done during the year, what is still unfinished… their wishes and plans for the new year. Especially, they discuss and agree together to prepare for a full, warm, and happy Lunar New Year…

The Ong Cong Ong Tao Festival with the beautiful custom of releasing carp and family reunions has always been respected, preserved and promoted by Vietnamese people for many years. The 23rd of December of the year of the Cat is approaching. The market has displayed a variety of Ong Cong Ong Tao sets and many types of carp to serve the needs and tastes of the people. The old year is about to pass, Ong Cong Ong Tao is preparing to ride a carp to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor about the work done during the year, asking the Jade Emperor to bestow blessings, luck, peace and happiness on the homeowner's family in the new year of the Dragon.

Pham Hien

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