The significance and customs of off-year

Off-year is an annual day for people to worship the kitchen god. According to the traditional custom of Han nationality in China, the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is called off-year. Off-year customs include king, sweeping dust, cutting window flowers, pasting Spring Festival couplets, eating honeydew melons, eating jiaozi and so on.

Off-year is a traditional festival in China and one of the most important festivals in China. On the day of off-year, every household will not only do these festive activities, but also buy brand-new items for their families, all of which will be replaced with new ones to prepare for the clean Spring Festival.

On this day of off-year, everyone will clean the dust, which means throwing away old cloth and making new cloth. Cutting window grilles is the most popular folk activity. Sticking Spring Festival couplets, symbolizing symmetry and perfection, also began to be posted on the day of off-year. Off-year is an essential day for jiaozi, who eats the jiaozi Festival sacrifice stove, which means "seeing jiaozi on the windward side".

Legend of Xiao nian

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.