Kitchen Deity
2 min readThere once was a fat mighty lord who loved to eat.His palace was full of all kinds of delicious food，and sometimes he went out to find new food.
One day he came to the house of a simple peasant woman.The mighty lord begged to taste her food so she gave him some sugar cakes，and soon he ate them all.He sti1l was hungry and wanted more cakes，and he even threatened the woman to take her back to his palace to make cakes for him.
The woman became angry and slapped the mighty lord across the face.Her sharp blow was so strong that the mighty lord fell back and became embedded into the wall.
He was completely stuck and could do nothing but watch other people eat food.When the Jade Emperor heard this story，he appointed the mighty lord to be the Kitchen Deity. Since then，his altar has been set up somewhere near every family’s kitchen stove.As the Kitchen Deity，his responsibility is to report to Heaven what the family has done the whole year.For this reason，each family carefully minds their conduct and behavior because they are afraid that a bad report would be given to the Jade Emperor.
Each year each family renews the Kitchen Deity’s picture to make the Kitchen Deity happy.On the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month，people usually offer the deity some melon-shaped candies called”candy melons.” This candy tastes sweet.The kitchen Deity’s mouth will be so full with sugar that when he makes his report，everything will sound good.Others believe that the candy is so sticky that it will keep his mouth shut when he gives his report.
