What should be prepared for the worship of the Heaven King on the 9th day of the first lunar month?
The offerings for worshipping the Heaven King differ between the upper table and the lower table. The upper table is offered to the most respected Heaven King, mainly with vegetarian and simple food. The lower table is offered to the subordinate deities of the Heaven King, so it mainly consists of meat dishes such as five types of meat. For the upper table, you need to prepare a pair of flowers, light a pair of candles, and place three cups of tea in front of the incense burner, filled with clear tea. The vegetarian offerings on the upper table include one plate of three bundles of noodles tied with red paper (or cooked and divided into three bowls, each with a black sugar candy), five fruits (such as oranges, apples, melons, sugarcane, bananas), and six kinds of vegetables (such as golden needle mushrooms, wood ear fungi, mushrooms, vermicelli, potatoes, and dates, which symbolize the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth). Some people also add dry ingredients like vegetable hearts, peas, mung beans, bean wheels, gluten, and bamboo baskets to form twelve, twenty-four, or thirty-six dishes, as well as sugar towers and sugar bowls. The meat offerings on the lower table include five types of meat (such as a whole chicken, a whole duck, a whole fish, a whole pig, and a whole sheep; alternatively, fish roe, pork, or pork stomach and intestines can be used, as long as they are cooked), as well as red tortoise cakes and sweet items (such as rice dates and sweet cakes).
What time is best for worshipping the Heaven King?
The general time for worshipping the Heaven King is on the 9th day of the first lunar month (in Xiamen and Zhangzhou areas), while in Quanzhou area it is usually on the eve of the Lunar New Year. You can start from midnight (11 PM to 1 AM) and continue until before 7 AM the next morning. However, it is said that because the Heaven King is a very noble deity, the earlier you offer your tribute, the more sincere you are. In some areas where the belief in the Heaven King is strong, believers may carefully worship the Heaven King at home during the night first, and then go to the nearby Heaven King temple to offer incense and tribute.When worshipping the Heaven King, there are two types of locations: one is when there is a Heaven King incense burner in the main hall of the house, and the other is when there is no Heaven King incense burner in the house. If there is a Heaven King incense burner in the house, the offering table can be placed under the large incense burner facing outward, indicating that we are welcoming the Heaven King's arrival from above; if there is no Heaven King incense burner in the house, the altar can be placed at the front door or in the courtyard facing upwards.
