Cool. Thanks. So there is also where the gods on the door in the shrine come from. Love it to learn more about it. Thanks 🙏 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uJbp8d_d9c&t=1 this might be fun 👍
Lunar new year is a whole rabbit hole 🕳️ no one can point to where most traditions come from and everyone grows up with different folktales 😂
Discussion
Oh it gets better! Every household has a "kitchen/stove god" (灶神) which reports to the jade emperor/God (玉皇大帝) on how the household behaved over the year. The jade emperor determines the household's fortune for the coming year off of this new years eve report 👀, so households are sure to butter him up by decorating his effigy and preparing offerings before he heads to the heavens and hands over his report 😂
Haha so cool. Is this also why for example in Vietnam but also saw it here in Bangkok they have a whole table full of food with a pig head on it?
A whole head is quite a celebration 😱 seems like they know how to have a good time there! Common traditions are to give thanks on the 15th day of each lunar month by offering to the gods before consuming the food, it's like saying grace before a meal only the ceremony explicitly gives the spirits some time to munch on the food. Candles and incense are used to welcome the spirits to come enjoy 🥳
In a nutshell, Bigger holidays = more food and celebration of more spirits
Thanks for all the info. Love it 🙏 Every culture is so much fun to learn from.
On the shrine doors are Menshen (門神, they keep the bad spirits out, there's a story about them in Journey to the West! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menshen