Bidding Farewell to the Kitchen Gods: A Vietnamese Tradition and Dialogue with Home Ahead of the Lunar New Year
WVR - The 23rd day of the last lunar month often arrives quietly amidst the hustle and bustle of modern life, nestled between year-end meetings and preparations for the Lunar New Year. Yet, no matter how simplified, Vietnamese people rarely forget the ceremony of sending off the Kitchen Gods.
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| The Kitchen Gods are not just deities of the hearth but symbols of intergenerational connection within a family. (Illustrative photo) |
The Kitchen Gods ceremony is not associated with grand temples or public spaces. It takes place right in the kitchen, where the fire is lit daily, where meals are shared, and where family stories quietly unfold. Vietnamese people believe that the kitchen deities witness everything—from conversations and interactions among family members to seemingly trivial moments that shape the household.
Thus, the ceremony of sending off the Kitchen Gods is not merely a “report of merits and faults” in a religious sense but a form of self-reflection. Before closing the old year, people pause, look at their most familiar space, and ask themselves how much love has been preserved and how many wounds remain unhealed in the past year.
In many young families today, the offering to the Kitchen Gods can be quite simple. There may not be many offerings or elaborate rituals. Instead, it might be one of the rare evenings when the whole family gathers, cleans the kitchen, and exchanges a few gentle words before the old year passes. At that moment, the ritual is not in the external form but in the presence and the conscious return to one's roots.
Some families choose to maintain the spirit of the ceremony through practical actions like tidying up the kitchen, reorganizing the living space, and discarding old, broken items. This is a way of “bidding farewell to the Kitchen Gods” through action, expressing the desire to enter the new year with a tidier, warmer home. Culture, after all, is not only in the prayers but also in how people treat their living space.
Placing the Kitchen Gods ceremony in the context of modern society reveals another layer of meaning. As life speeds up and family meals become less common, dedicating a day to remember the kitchen becomes even more precious.
The Kitchen Gods serve as a reminder that no matter where we go or what we do, people need a place to return to—a space where they can be themselves without defenses. In this sense, the Kitchen Gods are not just deities of the hearth but symbols of the connection between generations within a family, between past and present, and between traditional values and contemporary life.
Each year, when bidding farewell to the Kitchen Gods, Vietnamese people silently reconnect with their cultural roots. Amidst a society full of changes, small rituals like the Kitchen Gods ceremony are how Vietnamese culture maintains its rhythm, slowing down a bit, listening a bit more, so that people are not entirely swept away by the modern flow.
And perhaps, as long as Vietnamese people take a moment to send off the Kitchen Gods, the kitchen—the symbol of the household—will retain its unique place in the community's consciousness.
