Today is a small year, and there are only seven days before the Spring Festival. What is the custom of off-year in your place?

"Children, children, don't be greedy. It is a year after Laba. " In Yimeng Mountain area in the south of Shandong Province, we didn't pay so much attention to Laba Festival in the past, and many people didn't pay much attention to Laba Festival either. The next year, it will be different. "Year" begins with "Year".

The folks here are known as "three officials and four people". It means that officials and soldiers quit their stoves on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, while ordinary people quit their stoves one day later, that is, on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month.

According to legend, the Kitchen God is the God who is in charge of the human kitchen (local farmers call the cooking room "the pot room"), monitoring human evils and grasping the good fortune of a family. Kitchen God is the closest god to the people and is protected by the incense family. Examine the good and evil of a family and give play to the merits and demerits of a family. According to folklore, Kitchen God kept a record of his family's behavior at any time, died in his early years, and reported to the Jade Emperor in heaven.

To the kitchen god. In our hometown, we usually cook porridge this morning. After cooking, the first bowl is "used" in front of the kitchen god's idol, and candy and snacks will be put in the family with good conditions to express gratitude to the kitchen god. When I was a child, I wondered if Grandma Chef had followed me to heaven. Knowing that she has always stayed in the world, I thought that every woman who cooks is the embodiment of Grandma Cook.

This bowl of porridge for the used kitchen god is dug into the pot every morning when cooking, probably to thank the kitchen god for his kindness. It was cold in winter, and there was no refrigerator in the past. This bowl of porridge will not go bad for a week.

Quit the kitchen god ("kitchen" for short). After breakfast, Kitchen God will leave the world to make a "debriefing report" in the sky. Housewives thanked Kitchen God and muttered to themselves, asking him to "speak well in heaven and keep peace in the underworld". After eating porridge and snacks, Kitchen God is full of sweets. He will definitely say good things about this family to the Jade Emperor and wish him a safe year. This also means to retreat from the kitchen.

Clean it up No matter how lazy and untidy your home is, you should "get up at dawn and clean the yard inside and outside" on New Year's Day. Clean the house, sweep away all the cobweb dust, clean the glass, wash clothes, wash pots and pans, and even clean the henhouse and pigsty ... There are bright windows everywhere.

Take a bath and get a haircut. We have a saying here that "people with money and no money shave their heads for the New Year". Barbers who used to "shave their heads and carry loads" cut people's hair in the market or on the street. On off-year days, people with haircuts have to queue up. It was not so convenient to "take a bath" before. On this day of off-year, older girls and young men often go to "make soup" together, that is, "soak in hot springs". The place where they soak in hot springs is nearly 60 miles from our hometown. They will leave home before dawn and walk home after "eating soup" just to spend the next year clean.

Stick grilles, paste couplets, paste the portrait of Kitchen God. All this will have to wait until the 30th. Every cleaned room should have couplets on the door and stick grilles on the window. Some people will also put a "curtain" on the main door. The idol of Kitchen God is one a year, and it will be replaced on the 30th. On this day, Kitchen God also returned to earth after the meeting in heaven, and the cooked jiaozi should be presented to his old man's house first.

The custom of celebrating off-year and Spring Festival may be different in every place. These ceremonies represent people's expectations for a better life and blessings for the safety of their families.

Ding is Ding: columnist and book critic. The new book "You are only one step away from better" is selling well all over the network. Since the official account of WeChat, "Ding is Ding (ID: DSD555555).