What are the specific customs of off-year

Due to the different customs between the north and the south, the days called "off-year" are not the same. In most parts of the south, the off-year (dust-sweeping day) is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. Before the mid-Qing Dynasty, the northern region was also a small year after the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. For example, "Lu" records: "It is customary to call the twenty-fourth night of the twelfth lunar month four nights for reading, which is to send a stove at night."

Since the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the emperor's family held a ceremony to worship heaven on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. In order to "save money", they also pay homage to the kitchen god, so people in the northern region also celebrate the New Year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month one day in advance.

So do you know what customs there are during the off-year holiday?

1. In the traditional sense, it is a day of folk sacrifice. People will not only put honeydew melons and cakes on the table in front of the kitchen god, but also replace the old portrait of the kitchen god and paste a new portrait of every household "please" back.

According to legend, Kitchen God was originally a civilian, Zhang Sheng. After marriage, he spent all his time drinking, losing everything and begging in the streets. One day, he begged at his ex-wife Guo Dingxiang's house, ashamed and burned to death under the stove. When the Jade Emperor knew about it, he thought that Zhang Sheng would change his mind, and it wouldn't be bad in the end. Because he died at the bottom of the pot, he was named the kitchen god. Every year, he went to heaven on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month and returned to the bottom of the stove on the New Year's Eve. The people think that the kitchen god must be respected because he wants to repay the kindness to heaven. Therefore, people celebrate the "off-year" on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month, praying for peace and wealth in the coming year.

2. Dust-cleaning day is also a dust-cleaning day. Celebrating the New Year means that the Spring Festival is not far away, and people usually thoroughly clean the indoor sanitation, commonly known as sweeping the dust. The purpose of sweeping the dust is to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, remove the ominous, and make full preparations for the new year.

This custom has been passed down to this day, and people call the period from childhood to New Year's Eve "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. Everywhere is filled with jubilant atmosphere of cleaning and welcoming the Spring Festival cleanly.

On the day of eating stove candy, there is also the custom of eating stove candy. At first, stove candy was offered as a sacrifice to the stove. The main raw material is maltose, and the other is made of glutinous rice flour and caramel. Because the stove candy is mostly round and hollow like a melon, it is also called "sugar melon". Boiled sugar is particularly sticky, so it is also called "chewing gum candy".

Beijing is commonly known as "Guandong Sugar" because it is made according to the traditional Kanto method. The kitchen candy in Shanghai and Jiangsu is ingot-shaped, also known as "sugar ingot" (Yangzhou people also insert a green flower on the kitchen candy, called "ingot stove rice flower"), or "twenty-four sugar". Shanxi area is collectively called "Matang". In addition, there are various shapes of kitchen candy such as celery, gourd, chicken and duckling.

People think that the candy in the kitchen is sticky, so that it can stick to the mouth of the kitchen god, so that he can't speak ill of others and make mistakes. Because of its sweetness, Kitchen God will say more nice things after eating sugar.

4. Cutting window grilles in off-year is usually to prepare for the Spring Festival, while cutting window grilles and stick grilles are popular folk activities in off-year. Window grilling is an ancient traditional folk art in China, and it is one of the varieties of paper-cutting. Everywhere is covered with jubilant window grilles, and the clean atmosphere welcomes the Spring Festival. Pray for peace and good luck in the coming year. In ancient times, window grilles were not bought, but cut by craftsmen. When the scissors move, all kinds of animals and plants come alive, including magpies climbing plums and swallows wearing peaches and willows ... All the best wishes in a year are posted on the windows. Although few people can cut the window grilles by themselves now, the customs in stick grilles are still preserved, which are used to decorate the environment, render the atmosphere, and place the hope of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.

5. It is advisable to get married after a small year. People think that God has gone to heaven and everything has been forgiven. You don't have to choose a date to marry a daughter-in-law and prostitution. This is called rushing to get married. The folk song is "busy marriage in the countryside, Yichun posts tease spring scenery." Sisters talk privately in front of the lights. This year is the bridal chamber. So from the end of the year to the end of the year, there will be many new people holding weddings.

This is my understanding of off-year customs. What else do you know, my friend?