North:

1. jiaozi: jiaozi is usually eaten in the evening of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month in the north, because people will send the kitchen god to report his work to heaven on this day, and people will cook jiaozi and put it on the altar, meaning "seeing jiaozi off to the windward".

2. Sticky cakes: In some areas of Shandong, sticky cakes are steamed and eaten every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Sticky cake is a sweet cake made of yellow rice, red dates, etc., which is intended to stick the mouth of the kitchen god and make him only tell good things when reporting his work to the Jade Emperor.

3. Sesame candy: You should eat sesame candy on New Year's Eve in northwest Shanxi. The sesame candy in Datong, Shanxi Province is boiled with high-quality millet, then mixed with ground millet flour, fermented and solidified by a special process, and made into various shapes of candy, including jade bone sesame candy, crisp sesame candy, stuffed sesame candy, melon egg candy and board candy. No matter what kind of sesame candy it is, it is to stick to the kitchen god's mouth, so as not to report the delicious and luxurious things on earth to heaven.

4. kwantung candy: kwantung candy, also called kitchen king candy, can only be eaten around the off-year in a year. Guandong sugar is a special flavor sugar product made from malt and millet. Guandong sugar is fragrant, crisp and sticky, and is mainly used for offering sacrifices to stoves. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen, you should melt the Kwantung sugar with fire and apply it to the kitchen god's mouth, so that he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor.

5. candied melons: "Twenty-three, candied melons stick". Many people should have heard this folk song. The candied melon is similar to the kwantung sugar, except that the kwantung sugar is long and flat, which is the candied melon. It tastes crisp and sweet and sticky.

6. Fried corn: There is a custom of eating fried corn on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in southeastern Shanxi. People use maltose to stick fried corn together and freeze it into pieces, which tastes crisp, sweet and crisp.

7. Mianhua: On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people in Shandong Peninsula are busy steaming jujube steamed buns, reunion cakes, peaches and other pasta, which are also called Mianhua.

8. Fire: On New Year's Eve, jiaozi is not eaten in Luohe and Pingdingshan, Henan Province, but every household cooks its own fire to eat. Burning is also called sesame seed cake, which is almost equal to off-year. Locals say that off-year without burning is not a complete off-year.

South:

1. New Year's cakes: Generally, the north pays attention to wrapping jiaozi, while the south is more used to making new year's cakes. Dumplings are shaped like "gold ingots" and rice cakes sound like "Niangao", which is a good sign of good luck. Every year, in the south, it is a day for every family to steam and eat rice cakes, which means to stick the mouth of the kitchen king and let him say good things in heaven instead of bad things in the world. In addition, Hainan people use coconuts as ingredients to make coconut cakes for eating and praying, which means "high every year".

2. Rice cakes: People in Wuxuan, Guiping and other places in Guangxi have the custom of making rice cakes. Rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour as the main ingredient, peanuts, sesame seeds and sugar as the ingredients, put into a mold and made into a round shape, and then steamed at high temperature, which has a unique flavor and a meaning of "round and round".

3. Nian Zongzi: People in Nanning once had the custom of eating Nian Zongzi in their early years. Nian Zongzi is a symbol of good luck in the New Year. As the saying goes, "Nian Zongzi is the year of high school (Zongzi)". Nian Zongzi is different from Liang Zongzi in Dragon Boat Festival. It has stuffing, big and small, long and short, round and flat. After peeling off the leaves, the skin is glutinous rice, and the stuffing is mung bean and pork. Some people put their favorite food as stuffing.

4. Killing pigs: There is a custom of killing pigs for the Spring Festival in Landong of Lianhua, Xinhe of Xiling and Waterfront Village of Guanyin in Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County. After the Lunar New Year's Eve, the lively drama of killing the pig will be staged. Pick out the best meat, stir-fry or stew it, cook it carefully, and then fill it with a glass of wine, and invite friends and relatives to the first fresh meat after the pig was slaughtered.

5. Tangyuan: Southerners should eat Tangyuan on the winter solstice, off-year, New Year and Lantern Festival, and the varieties are complete and varied.

6. Eleocharis tuberosa: Sugarcane and Eleocharis tuberosa are essential for the old Fuzhou sacrifice stove, which means "sweet". Water chestnut is a homonym of Fuzhou dialect, which means "good luck lasts from the beginning to the end of the year".

7. Twenty-four Tuans: "Eating dumplings 24 hours a day" is a custom in many places in the south of the Yangtze River, which means that the whole family is round and happy. In Suzhou, every year on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, it is a must to make dumplings, send dumplings and eat dumplings. The most important sacrifice in Suzhou people's cooking stoves is dumplings, which used to be called "Twenty-four Tuans". "Twenty-four Tuans" are made of glutinous rice flour, and the fillings include fresh meat, bean paste, shredded radish and so on. The steamed dumplings are marked with marks, which are round, square and petal-shaped to distinguish different fillings.

Due to different local customs, the dates are different:

South:

Most areas in the south: the 24th of the twelfth lunar month

Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangxi areas: the day when the kitchen god was sacrificed on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month was called "offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove", while the day before New Year's Eve was called "New Year's Eve", as opposed to "New Year's Eve" on New Year's Eve.

Taiwan Province area: the day before New Year's Eve

Nanjing area: On the fifteenth day of the first month, that is, the Lantern Festival (Lantern Festival)

In some areas, there is a custom of sending the kitchen god on the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, which has also become a small year in this area.

North:

Most parts of the north: the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.