Who are Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao?

Every year, around the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, families begin to prepare for the ceremony to worship the Kitchen Gods a week later. In addition to buying votive paper and clothes for the Kitchen Gods, housewives also plan the menu for the feast, ask where to buy carp... Many people are very familiar with the ritual procedures but do not know the origin of these gods.

So who are Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao? The Kitchen Gods in Vietnamese folk beliefs originated from the three gods Tho Cong, Tho Dia, and Tho Ky of Chinese Taoism, but were Vietnamized into the legend of "2 men and 1 woman" - the God of Earth, the God of House, the God of Kitchen, and people still commonly call them Tao Quan or Mr. Tao.

According to Vietnamese legend, Thi Nhi had a husband named Trong Cao. Although they lived together in love, they had no children, so gradually Trong Cao often looked for trouble and tormented his wife.

One day, just because of a small matter, Cao made a big deal out of it, beat Thi Nhi and chased her away. Nhi left home, wandered to another land and met Pham Lang. Falling in love, the two became husband and wife. After Trong Cao calmed down, he was very regretful but his wife had already left far away. Tormented and missing her terribly, Cao set out to find his wife.

Day after day, month after month, searching forever, out of rice and money, Cao had to beg along the road, finally by chance he wandered into Thi Nhi's house to beg for food when Pham Lang was away. Recognizing the beggar as her ex-husband, Nhi invited him in to cook for her. At that moment, Pham Lang returned. Nhi was afraid that her husband would wrongly suspect her, so she hid Cao under a pile of straw in the back garden.

Unfortunately that night, Pham Lang set fire to the straw pile to get ash to fertilize the field. Seeing the fire, Nhi jumped in to save Cao. Seeing Nhi jump into the fire, Pham Lang, out of pity for his wife, jumped in too. All three died in the fire.

God took pity on the three people and saw that they lived a life of kindness and love, so he appointed them as Kitchen Gods, also known as Dinh Phuc Tao Quan. He assigned the new husband to be Tho Cong to look after the kitchen, the old husband to be Tho Dia to look after the house, and the wife to be Tho Ky to look after the market.

Not only determining the luck, misfortune, and blessings of the homeowner, the Kitchen Gods also prevent the invasion of evil spirits into the land, keeping peace for everyone in the house. Every year, on the 23rd of December, the Kitchen Gods go to heaven to report all the good and bad deeds of people during the year so that Heaven can decide on merits and sins, and reward and punish fairly.

With the wish that the Kitchen God will bless their family with good luck, Vietnamese people often solemnly hold a ceremony to send the Kitchen God to heaven.

According to VTC News