Saturday, February 6, 2010

Song Shen

Come tomorrow and the Chinese will be doing 'song shen', that is sending off the dewas to the Realm of the Jade Emperor. The dewas will be there until the fourth day of Chinese New Year when they descend to the Earth again.

One of the dewas, namely zao shen or the Kitchen God will be reporting to the Jade Emperor about what transpired in each household for the household, good or bad. in order that the Kitchen God will tell only good things to the Jade Emperor, the Chinese will place nian gao or brown glutinous cake on the altar where the dewa resides. It is believed that after partaking of the cake, the dewa's mouth will have been sugar-coated and must be telling good things when he is up there in the Realm of Jade Emperor.

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