How to choose chicken for New Year's Eve offering to bring good luck to the homeowner

(Baonghean.vn) - Choosing a chicken to offer on New Year's Eve to bring luck and fortune in the new year to the homeowner is a matter of concern for many people.

1. The meaning of the 5 good qualities of the rooster in Vietnamese customs

According to Vietnamese custom, the rooster has 5 exemplary virtues that men especially need to develop. Offering to the rooster is to pray that future descendants will inherit those virtues.

Cockerel.

1. Literature: The rooster's crest and the two crests below that look like the doctor's dragonfly-winged hat symbolize Literature.

2. Martial arts: The cock spur is a symbolic weapon for martial arts.

3. Courage: The rooster in the flock is always ready to fight to protect his flock and is ready to die, symbolizing Courage.

4. Humanity: The leader rooster, when fed, always calls his flock to come and then slowly eats together, never eating alone, symbolizing Humanity.

5. Trust: The rooster always crows on time regardless of the season, symbolizing Trust. That is the reason why in the past, people chose roosters for offerings and never hens.

2. How to choose chicken for offering

The chicken chosen for the offering must be a healthy young rooster with a large, flag-colored comb, plump yellow body, yellow legs, and has not mated yet.

The plum rooster (tall legs, yellow or white), then the purple rooster, black rooster, mixed-feather rooster, and the ri rooster (plum color, dark yellow, 5-pointed comb, small legs, no spurs yet, yellow skin and legs) are also very popular for offerings.

3. How to make beautiful chicken offerings

To have a beautiful offering chicken, people need to gut it, clean it, cut the mouth, and cut the joints so that the two legs are curled up behind the belly (cut the legs carefully so that the chicken does not bend forward - the position of an angry chicken, curling its legs to prepare to kick). Place the chicken on its side in a pot of cold water, head tilted back, legs curled behind the belly, two wings naturally curled (it is best to tie the shape before putting it in the pot). When boiling, turn both sides evenly so that the chicken does not become crooked.

The chicken offered on New Year's Eve must be a young rooster, the main offering.

To make the chicken offering delicious and beautiful, you need to wash the blood off so the water is not cloudy. Put the chicken in a pot, pour cold water over the chicken (do not put the chicken in hot water because the chicken skin will shrink when heated suddenly and easily tear), bring to a simmer (not boiling), then skim off the foam and leave it for about 7-8 minutes.

Roast 1 ginger root, 1 onion, crush them and put them in the pot of chicken broth and boil them again (5 minutes if it is a young chicken for New Year's Eve, 10 minutes for boiled chicken to eat). Turn off the stove, cover the pot, soak the chicken in water for another 5 minutes. If you want the chicken skin to be crispy, when you take it out, immediately put it in very cold water. Then untie the chicken, arrange it on a plate, put a bright red rose in the chicken's beak (or a flower carved from a green onion is also beautiful), put the blood and chicken intestines back in the chicken's belly.

4. What is the correct way to place chicken on the altar?

How to place the chicken offering.

Legend has it that every year Heaven replaces all the officers and soldiers in charge of the lower world. The New Year's Eve offering is to send off the officers and soldiers who ruled the old year and welcome the officers and soldiers who ruled the new year.

As for the chickens placed on the altar, the common concept is to place the chicken with its head facing the incense bowl with its mouth open, legs kneeling, and wings naturally stretched. This position is considered "a chicken that knows how to call, crow, and is in attendance". Do not place the chicken with its head facing out, because it is considered a chicken that "refuses to attend". If the chicken is placed with its head facing outwards, it will look more beautiful. If the chicken is placed with its head facing inwards, the corpus will stick out, which is not beautiful. But that is just a beautiful form, it has no meaning.

Kim Ngoc

(Synthetic)