Fourth Day of New Year: Thank the kitchen god, sweep your floor

CNY, Day Four: Thank the Kitchen God & Sweep Your Floor (Again)

Irene Li, Associate Editor | Feb 4, 2022 11:48 am | Add a comment | 411 reads

It's the fourth day of Chinese New Year! Here's the lowdown on what people get up to on this day (a Friday at that).

1. Return of the Kitchen God

The fourth day of the Lunar New Year marks the return of Kitchen God to earth

While it might not be as epic as the Return of the Jedi (at least it's not in a galaxy far far away either?) today is the day the Kitchen God returns to Earth from reporting to the Jade Emperor (a guy we're willing to bet is a bit nicer than Emperor Palpatine).

How do folks welcome him back? By preparing a feast of course! Fruits, incense, and other treats like 灶糖 zàotáng, a long, crunchy holiday snack covered in sesame seeds. People believe if you feed the Kitchen God enough sweet treats, he'll say good things about you in the coming year.

If you're eager to please the Kitchen God, you can score some zaotang from time honored Beijing brands like 稻香村 Daoxiangcun or 百年義利 Bainian Yili.

2. Sweep your floor (again)

While the story goes that you can't sweep up from Xiaonian through the first week of New Year in order to not sweep away any luck you might have received, today is a ok. The good luck from the arrival of a new year has probably settled, so today it's best to sweep up lest any bad luck has arrived with it.

3. Eat Laobing tan Jidan

On this day, people like to eat 烙饼摊鸡蛋 Làobǐng tān Jīdàn, which is more or less a savory pancake stuffed with eggs or other fixings. You can order any old 烙饼 laobing off of Meituan and stuff it with eggs (add tofu slices and carrots to make for a slightly healthier snack).

If you simply must have the real thing, just search the whole name on Meituan and get it delivered to your door in a pinch, or head to a branch of 姥姥家春饼店 Laolaojia Chunbing Dian (a personal favorite of mine) to get your fix.