Basic meaning
Xiǎo nián Xi m: o niá n
1. Festival, the old custom worships the stove on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. Folk sacrificial stoves originated from the ancient custom of worshipping fire. The duty of the kitchen god is to take charge of the kitchen fire and manage the diet.
2. The old customs are from off-year to New Year's Eve in all is forgiven.
3. It refers to the year when fruit trees bear few fruits and bamboo and wood grow slowly.
On the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month, it is a traditional day of offering sacrifices to stoves in China, also known as "off-year". Legend has it that the Kitchen God was originally a commoner, Zhang Sheng. After he got married, he spent all his time drinking and drinking, and he lost all his possessions and went to the streets to beg. One day, he begged at his ex-wife Guo Dingxiang's house, ashamed, and burned to death under the stove and pot. When the Jade Emperor knew about it, he thought that Zhang Sheng could come to their senses, and it was not bad to the end. Since he died at the bottom of the pot, he was named the kitchen king, reported to heaven on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month every year, and returned to the kitchen bottom on the New Year's Eve. The people think that the kitchen king must be respected because he wants to report to heaven.