Off-year has different concepts and dates in different places, with the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month in the north and 24th of the twelfth lunar month in most parts of the south. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai call "the 24th of the twelfth lunar month" and "the night before New Year's Eve" off-year, Nanjing calls the Lantern Festival on the 15th of the first month off, some parts of Yunnan are on the 16th of the first month, and some ethnic minority areas in southwest and north are on New Year's Eve.
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 in China to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.
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The origin of off-year
Due to local customs, the days called "off-year" are different. In some parts of our country, there is a saying that "officials, three people, four boats and five people" are in the off-year period, that is to say, the off-year period of the official is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the people's family is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and house boat is the 25th of the twelfth lunar month.
Folk sacrificial stoves originated from the ancient custom of worshipping fire. "Interpretation of Name": "Kitchen. Make it, create food. " The kitchen god's duty is to take charge of the kitchen fire and manage the diet. Later, it was expanded to investigate the good and evil in the world, so as to reduce good and evil.
It is said that on this day, the kitchen god will report the good and evil of this family to the jade emperor, so that the jade emperor can reward and punish him. When offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove, you should melt the Kwantung sugar with fire and put it on the mouth of the kitchen god, so that he can't speak ill of the Jade Emperor. The custom of "men don't Yue Bai, women don't offer sacrifices to the kitchen", so offering sacrifices to the kitchen is limited to men.
As China people basically eat rice, cooked food is generally difficult to preserve and must be cooked at any time. Unlike western bread, you can bake a lot at a time and keep it for consumption. Therefore, for China people, "firewood" (fuel) is the first of the "seven things" in life (rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea). Without fuel, even if there is basic food, there is no way to eat it. In the west, it is generally enough for a village to have only one bread stove. In China, every family must have a stove.
Because every family has a stove, a legend has emerged, that is, the Jade Emperor stationed a supervisor in each family-the Kitchen God (who ordered the Kitchen God, Kitchen God, Kitchen God and Kitchen King) to supervise and inspect what this family did in one year. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will report to the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor will decide whether to reward or punish this family next year according to the report, and the Kitchen God will be the next year. The festival of offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove is actually a festival for families to send the kitchen god to heaven.