In the off-year, the north generally pays attention to eating jiaozi, sticky cakes, sesame sugar, Guandong sugar, honeydew melon and fire; The south pays attention to eating rice cakes, rice cakes, zongzi, glutinous rice balls and water chestnuts. Because of the different customs between the north and the south, the days called "off-year" are different. The north and the south eat on this day to stick the mouth of the kitchen god and let him say the good things in the sky, not the bad things on earth.

folk custom

Offering sacrifices to stoves is an important activity in off-year. The southern off-year is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month and the northern off-year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. The kitchen god's duty is to control the kitchen fire and manage the diet. Sacrificing stoves has a history of thousands of years in China, and the belief in kitchen god is a reflection of people's dream of "having enough to eat and wear".

In addition, from 24th to New Year's Eve, China folks call this period "Spring Festival" or "Dust Day". "Dust removal" means year-end cleaning. On this day, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of utensils, tear down and wash bedding curtains, clean the courtyard of Liu Lu, dust off cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels.

Local taboo

Off-year taboos vary from place to place. According to legend, in some parts of Hubei, slaughter is prohibited in off-year years. Some places in Henan are forbidden to pound garlic, thinking that they will destroy their homes in the coming year.