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Zaotang (Chinese: 灶糖； Pinyin: Zào Táng) or sugar for the Kitchen God is a kind of candy made of maltose that people in China use as a sacrifice to the kitchen god around the twenty third day of the twelfth lunar month just before Chinese New Year. According to its difference in shape, zaotang is also called Guandong tang (Chinese: 关东糖； Pinyin: Guān Dōng Táng) or Tanggua (Chinese: 糖瓜； Pinyin: Táng Guā). Guandong tang refers to stick shaped candy with a thickness of 2 cm and a hollow in the center. Tanggua is made into melon shape and sometimes with sesame on the surface.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Sugar for the Kitchen God )〕 As the legend goes, the Kitchen God is sent to the earth by the Jade Emperor to supervise life of every household. The Kitchen god will return to Heaven to report the activities of every household over the past year to the Jade Emperor on the 23rd of 12th lunar month, which is called the Kitchen God Festival or the Little new year. People offer the Zaotang to Kitchen God to sweeten his words to the Jade Emperor or to stick his teeth together to prevent him saying bad words. Zaotang are only produced around the Kitchen God Festival when most part of China is experiencing freezing weather. The candies are sold outside on the street so that they won't melt and the tiny bubbles inside the candy create a special crispy and fragrant taste. ==Origin of Zaotang== The tradition of people offering sacrifice to kitchen god can date back to Han Dynasty. ''Houhan Shu （后汉书，The History of the Later Han)'' recorded a man offered an antelope as a sacrifice to the Kitchen God and got the bless from the Kitchen God, thus his family gained and retained fortune and frame for three generations. During the period of Three Kingdoms, people in Eastern Wu Kingdom offered liquor as a sacrifice to the Kitchen God . People in Song Dynasty started using Zaotang as a sacrifice to the Kitchen God to sweeten his words so that he wouldn't say bad things to the Jade Empire. Some people also say that when Zaotang melts, it becomes sticky and stick the Kitchen God's teeth so that he is unable to talk when reporting to the Jade Empire. Up till now, people in China still keep this tradition and produce Zaotang every year around the Kitchen God Festival. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zaotang」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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