Today is a traditional festival in China, the day of offering sacrifices to stoves. What does that mean? How did it come from?

Sacrificing stoves is a traditional custom with great influence and wide spread among Han people. The folk sacrificial furnace originated from the ancient custom of worshipping fire. According to "Records of Local Customs" written by Zhou Chu, a celebrity in Jin Dynasty in China, "On the 24th night of the twelfth lunar month, the kitchen god offered sacrifices to heaven, and he was one year old the next day, so he offered sacrifices to the day first."

In the early and middle Qing Dynasty, the sacrificial furnace was always the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. And at least until the Qianlong period, it was a sacrifice on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. "Lu" Volume 12 "Reading for Four Nights in December": "It is customary to say that reading for four nights in the twelfth lunar month means sending meals at night." According to the legacy of unofficial history Daguan and Qing Palace in Qing Dynasty, Qianlong once worshipped the Kitchen God in Kunning Palace on the 24th night of the twelfth lunar month every year.

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 most northern regions celebrate the off-year holiday on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. In most parts of the south, the ancient tradition of celebrating the Lunar New Year on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month is still maintained.