These days, Thanh Ha pottery village in Hoi An city, Quang Nam province is very busy producing terra-cotta statues of the Kitchen God to serve the high demand of the market during the lunar New Year holiday.
Thanh Ha pottery village has made these statues for over 400 years. The molds are made of wood and must be cleaned very often, so the motifs of the statues are smooth and clear.
Beside traditional dishes and votive paper, the terra-cotta statues have important significance for local people in central region.
While residents in each region across the country pay homage to Ong Cong and Ong Tao in slightly different ways, the gods remains an important figure in the rich texture of Vietnamese New Year.
In traditional Vietnamese culture, on every 23rd day of the last month in the Lunar Calendar, people from every household bid farewell to Ong Tao, thanking him for watching over their kitchen for another year. Then, the Kitchen God is believed to visit Ngoc Hoang (the Jade Emperor) in heaven. All family’s members participate in making the Kitchen God statue. Folding figurines into pottery kilns.
Photo by collect on the internet.
