On the 23rd day of December in the lunar calendar, the folk call it "off-year", which is a festival to worship the kitchen god.

The custom of offering sacrifices to stoves has a long history. Kitchen God, in the Xia Dynasty, has become a great god respected by the people. In The Analects of Confucius, which describes Kong Qiu's words and deeds in the Spring and Autumn Period, there is a saying that "it is better to be charming than to be beautiful." In the pre-Qin period, the sacrificial stove was one of the "five sacrifices" (the five sacrifices were the five gods of sacrificial stove, gate, travel, household and thunder). The thunder is the earth god.

The other is door, well, household, stove and lightning; Or lines, wells, households, stoves, and thunder). When offering sacrifices to the stove, a god should be set up and rich wine and food should be used as sacrifices. It is necessary to display the tripod, set up water beans, welcome the corpse and so on. With obvious traces of primitive fetishism.

The custom of off-year

1, cut window grilles

This is the most common and popular folk activity, which involves all kinds of stories about animals and plants, such as the magpie climbing the plum blossom, the peacock playing peony, the lion rolling hydrangea, the three sheep (Yang) opening Thailand, the two dragons playing with pearls, and the Yuanyang playing with water. Putting up window grilles means that the new year is getting better and better. Cut out the window grilles and stick them in a clean room, which naturally adds a lot of joy to the home.

Moreover, after years of dusting, shops and residents' homes have taken on a new look. The newly posted Spring Festival couplets are bright and dazzling, showing the prosperous prosperity. Vivid door gods, banners looking up to see happiness, exquisite window grilles, colorful New Year pictures, colorful lanterns and rich sacrifices on shrines all show the scene of prosperity and joy.

2. Sweep the Year

Sweeping the year is called the north in the north and the south in the south. The northerners call it "sweeping the house". Southerners call it "dusting". Every household should thoroughly clean the indoor and outdoor areas, in front of the house and behind the house, wash the clothes and utensils, and greet the Spring Festival cleanly, so that the windows are bright and clean. Later, this "house cleaning" gradually evolved into a general cleaning for adults during the Spring Festival.

Later, it gradually evolved into a year-end cleaning, but whether it is called the same or not, the custom of cleaning the house during the New Year is a traditional habit that Chinese people have always adhered to. This custom can be traced back to more than 3,000 years ago. At that time, it was to exorcise ghosts and so on, so there was such a ceremony.