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The main customs of off-year are people king, stick grilles, posting Spring Festival couplets, sweeping dust, eating jiaozi and eating sesame candy.

Custom 1: the king of the people

Off-year, it is the day of folk sacrifice to the stove. According to folklore, "Heaven speaks well, and the next world is safe". Every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will tell the Jade Emperor about the good and evil of this family. Therefore, people will put some honeydew melons and kitchen candy in front of the statue of the kitchen god in the off-year so that the kitchen god can say more good things in front of the jade emperor.

Custom 2: stick grilles

After the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, every family began to go to stick grilles. In the past, window grilles were usually cut by themselves. Old people with good skills cut beautiful window grilles with their grandchildren and put them on. Nowadays, most people buy window grilles, which seems to have lost a little of the joy and taste of the past.

Custom 3: paste Spring Festival couplets

Many places put up Spring Festival couplets in early years, which is considered to be earlier than the Spring Festival. More traditional people are also used to asking people with good handwriting to write Spring Festival couplets. Generally, the most common red paper and black ink are used, which is simple but full of charm.

Custom 4: Sweep the dust

When I was young, I had to clean the dust. Northerners call it "sweeping the floor" and southerners call it "dust removal". This custom can be traced back to many years ago, when it was a religious ceremony to drive away epidemic ghosts and pray for well-being. After the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust also means sweeping away old things, which means not only the old dirt in the courtyard, but also the unhappiness encountered in the old year.

Custom 5: Eat jiaozi.

Jiaozi is used to eating it in the northern New Year's Eve, which means to bid farewell to Kitchen God and "send away the windward side of jiaozi". The family sat together and ate hot jiaozi, which was very enjoyable and full of flavor.

Custom 6: Eat sesame candy.

Candied melons, caramel, sesame candy and other foods, originally for the mouth of the kitchen god, gradually evolved into snacks that children must eat in their early years. There is a saying in the northwest of Shanxi that "you can't chew your fingers with sesame candy."