Still life @ home Rat and Pumpkin again 靜物寫生
2020 Day17
The Kitchen God is the most important of many Chinese domestic gods that protect the hearth and family. I am not sure that it is a religion or if it is just folklore. Our Chinese culture believes that on the twenty third day of the last lunar month, just before Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God(灶君) returns to Heaven to report all the activities of every household over the past year to Yu Huang, the Jade Emperor(玉皇大帝). The Jade Emperor, emperor of the heaven, who either rewards or punishes a family based on Kitchen God's annual report.
Anyway, there are only few days each year we could see snow on top of the distant mountains at our location. It was a beautiful and cold day. Staying at home I painted another still-life. The mouse pot holder I found out the other day was made of silicone rubber. I bought another squash just because I loved the colors. So I made my still-life more fun looking, and hoping it will usher in a happy year of the rat. At the same time I cooked a chocolate sweet sticky rice pancake with tons of honey in it. Sticky and sweet, which mean to only report good things to the Jade God in the heaven by the Kitchen God. Of course, there are more activities for a date like today, we call it Xiao Nian (Pre Lunar New Year, from my own interpretation). Hope all of you have gotten decent reports😁, and have a great year!!