Before the mid-Qing Dynasty, the day of offering sacrifices to stoves was always the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. And at least until the Qianlong period, it was a sacrifice on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. "Qing Jia Lu" Volume 12 "Reading Four Nights to Send Cooks in December": "It is customary to call the twenty-fourth night of the twelfth lunar month to read four nights, which is to send cookers at night." According to the Legacy of unofficial history Grand View and Qing Palace in Qing Dynasty, Qianlong once worshipped the kitchen god in Kunning Palace on the 24th night of the twelfth lunar month every year.
Since the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the emperors' families have held a ceremony to worship heaven on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. In order to "save money", they also paid homage to the Kitchen God. Therefore, the northern region celebrated the Lunar New Year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month one day in advance. In most parts of the south, the ancient tradition of celebrating the Lunar New Year on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month is still maintained.
Most areas in northern China call the festival of offering sacrifices to stoves on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month as off-year. There are also many areas that call the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month off-year, and the winter solstice is also called off-year. Off-year also means that people begin to prepare for new year's goods and prepare for a clean and good year, indicating that the New Year should have a new atmosphere, and expressing a good wish of the working people of the Han nationality to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.