The
fireplace was considered a sacred part of the home, as every Vietnamese family
worshiped the Kitchen God.
People
living in Vietnams northern delta typically built their homes with the front
door facing south, as advised by the old saying, " Marry a good-natured
wife and build a house turned towards the south" the kitchen should
ideally lie to the left, in the eastern quadrant, separate from the main
building with its door facing west. This direction prevents southern and
eastern sea winds from blowing into the kitchen and causing the cooking fire to
flare up and burn down the house or make the family uneasy.
In
what was once King Bac province (now Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces), Gia
Lam, Dong Anh District, and some areas of Vinh Phuc, Thai Nguyen, Lang Son and
Hung Yen provinces, the main house typically consisted of three compartments
and one or two lean-tos. The kitchen had two sections. One part was used to store
fish sauce, salt, pickles, looking pots, water containers, dishes, utensils,
and perhaps a rice-hulling mill and mortar, The other side, used for cooking,
contained some straw, firewood and the stove, Women were responsible for the
cooking, as explained in old proverbs like, " Looking at a house's kitchen
we can know about the woman in that family"; " Without a man, a house
is lonely, while without a woman the kitchen is deserted" , or , " A
man is always close to his house and a woman is always close to her
kitchen".
In
the old days, the cooking pot rested upon an earthen trivet comprised of three
rounded clods of heavy soil or clay mixed with rice husks and arranged in a
triangle. People in central Vietnam called the trivet ong nuc and northerners called it ong dau rau. Northerners also referred to the middle clod as dau rau cai (female trivet) and the
other two as dau rau duc (male
trivets). To heat many pots at one time the cook arranged two or three sets of
trivets in a line.
The
fireplace was considered an essential, and indeed sacred, part of the home, as
every Vietnamese family worshiped the Kitchen God along with the family’s
ancestors. The ancestral altar stood in the main section of the house and the
Kitchen God's altar in a side section. If an auxiliary branch of the family did
not have an ancestral altar in their home they placed the Kitchen God's altar
in the central section. Simpler than an ancestral altar, the Kitchen God's
altar consisted of an incense-table set against the back wall. Three gods were
worshiped: Tho Cong, Tho Dia and Tho Ky. Their votive tablet bore the message,
"The palace of the Kitchen God is located in the east and takes care of
the host's life and destiny", or tour Chinese characters (Dinh Phuc Tao quan) that declare, "The
Kitchen God bring luck to the family".
It
is said that each year on the 23rd day of 12th lunar month the Kitchen God
reports his host's good and bad deeds to the King of Heaven. If the host has
been good-hearted the King of Heaven will reward him with good health and luck.
If he has behaved badly his days may be numbered. On this day, after honoring
Ong Cong (also called Ong Tao), householders burn votive paper money for the
dead and replace their old ong dau rau with a new one, throwing the old one
into a pond. This done, they release a live carp into a stream or a pond so
that it may be turned into a dragon and carry Ong Cong to meet the King of
Heaven. (According to an old Chinese belief, Ong Cong could be bribed with candy
to present a positive report).
The
Kitchen God's relationship to the ong dau
rau is explained in a Vietnamese folk tale about a couple named Trong Cao
and Thi Nhi. Though married for many years, the pair remained childless. One
day they got into an argument and Trong Cao beat his wife, who moved away. She
later remarried a man named Pham Lang. Saddened by Thi Nhi's departure, Trong
Cao set out to find her. He grew so poor that he was forced to beg to survive.
By chance Trong Cao came to Pham Lang's home, where his former wife recognized
him. As her new husband wasn't home, she took pity on Trong Cao and served him
a feast, then hit him in a sack of straw behind the house. Unfortunately, Pham
Lang and a servant unwittingly burned this sack of straw to make ash to
fertilize the rice fields. Seeing her ex-husband engulfed in flames Thi Nhi
threw herself into the fire and died. Pham Lang and the servant were so
distraught that they followed suit. Witnessing this sorry scene the God of
Heaven decided to transform them into Kitchen Gods.
Pham
Lang earned the title Tho Cong, responsible for the kitchen. Trong Cao became
Tho Dia, who cares for the home. And Thi Nhi became Tho Ky, in charge of
shopping. Collectively they became the three ong dau rau. The servant, meanwhile, was turned into nui rom, or the handful of straw
kindling used to re-ignite the flames. Even at night, people tried not to let
their cooking fires go out. Each evening, householders would place a cloud of
earth over a pile of lit rice husks that would smolder until morning.
Up
until the 1960s and 1970s, peasants in northern Vietnam often use straw for
fuel. Ong dau rau were commonly used.
In some houses iron trivets named kieng
replaced the earthen ones. More convenient than
dau rau, the kieng has a similar,
sturdy structure. The poet To Huu wrote the line: "No matter what people
say, my mind is as unshakable as a cooking trivet ".
The
traditional kitchen was not just the place where meals were prepared and
cooked, but also the place where the whole family gathered after a hard day’s
work. In cold weather the kitchen was cozy. Even if the food was meager, the
atmosphere could be pleasant, as described in a folk song that states: "A
soup of shrimp feelers and gourd guts (a dish that is far from tasty) can be
delicious when the husband and wife enjoy tasting it together".
Everyone
who grew up in the countryside has special childhood memories: swimming in
ponds, fishing, baking sweet potatoes and cassava in the fire... Over time, new
stoves were invented. Nowadays some poor families have no choice but to use
peat stoves, although they are dirty and polluting. In the city, many people
cook with gas. They now spend large sums on redecorating their kitchens, Rice
cookers and microwave ovens make it easy to prepare meals while listening to
music or watching TV. But many families no longer gather regularly, despite -
or maybe because of - these modern conveniences.
Nowadays
peasants don't feed their stoves with straw. They use peat or marsh-gas, or
electricity or gas. But to this day people still recall the legend of ong dau rau and still worship the
Kitchen God, who inspires all of us to be kinder and more charitable.
This
article written by Lanh Nguyen from Vietnam Heritage Travel
For
original article, please visit:
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