Custom: Sacrificing a stove is an important activity on off-year day. The southern off-year is on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and the northern off-year is on 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 the people's dream of "having enough food and clothing".
Sweep the house on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month: From the 24th to the New Year's Eve, our folks call this period "Spring Festival Day", also called "Dust-sweeping Day". "Dust-sweeping" means year-end cleaning. Every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of appliances, remove and wash bedding curtains, sweep the courtyard of Liulu, dust cobwebs and dredge open channels and culverts on this day.
Extended data:
Off-year is regarded as the beginning of a busy year, which means that people begin to prepare new year's goods, sweep dust, offer sacrifices to stoves, etc., and prepare for a clean and good year, which expresses people's good wish to bid farewell to the old year, welcome the new year and welcome the good fortune. Due to different local customs, the days called "off-year" are not the same.
In some places in modern China, it is said that "three officials, three people, four boats and five boats" means that the official's off-year 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. In fact, there is no distinction between "official off-year" and "civilian off-year", but there are different concepts and dates of off-year in different regions, and the official off-year and civilian off-year in the same region are the same.