Why is New Year's Day called off-year?

Due to different local customs, the days called off-year are also different, and many areas in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai call the fifth day of the first month off-year

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a day to "break" the poor god and welcome the god of wealth. In addition, the fifth day of the first month is also the birthday of the legendary god of wealth, so it has become an auspicious day to meet the god of wealth. It is one of the traditional festivals of the Han nationality with a long history. In the old society, from the first day to the fifth day, there were many superstitious taboos among the people, such as not cooking with uncooked rice, women not sewing, not cleaning, not breaking things and so on. After the fifth day, these taboos were lifted, so this day was called "breaking the fifth day".

Taboos on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month:

1, welcome the god of wealth

When the God of Wealth is welcomed, it is usually chosen at 0: 00 in the morning to present the sheep's head and carp that have been prepared long ago, and then open the doors and windows, light incense and set off firecrackers to welcome the God of Wealth. Because offering a sheep's head means "good luck", carp is the homonym of "fish" and "surplus", and "carp" is the homonym of "profit", so people are convinced that as long as the god of wealth can appear, they can make a fortune.

I accepted the god of wealth and sent away the poor god. After "breaking the fifth year", it means that many taboos can be broken before "breaking the fifth year", and it also means "sending the year". So after this day, everything will slowly return to the normal state before New Year's Eve. ?

2. Eat jiaozi.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the popular folk food custom is to eat jiaozi, commonly known as "squeezing people's mouths". Because when you wrap jiaozi, you have to pinch it by hand along the edge of jiaozi. It is said that this can avoid rumors around. In addition, on this day, we have to find out some old clothes to tear down, which is called "tearing down villains" This can avoid bad luck.

According to the old custom, you should eat "dumplings" for five days, which is called "boiled cakes" in the north. Now some families only eat it for three or two days, and some eat it every other day. However, there is no one who does not eat. This is true from the royal residence to the small houses in the streets, even for entertaining guests. On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, coins, candied dates and brown sugar are also wrapped in jiaozi in some places, which means getting rich, coming early with good luck and being sweet and beautiful.