Tabloid content of Spring Festival customs

During the Spring Festival, the tabloids mainly sweep dust and offer sacrifices to kitchen gods.

Sweeping dust, the year before last was mainly about getting rid of the old cloth and replacing it with a new one. Sweeping dust is one of the new customs of dealing with old cloth before last year. There is a folk saying that on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, falling dust sweeps the house. At the end of the year, Gan San officially began to prepare for the New Year. Dust removal means year-end cleaning, which is called cleaning in the north and cleaning in the south.

Sacrifice to the kitchen god, and inspect the kitchen stove on December 3 or 4 of the lunar calendar, that is, brush the kitchen stove clean after dark, take down the old kitchen god and burn it. On the morning of New Year's Eve, put up new pictures, set wine, meat, sugar, sugar cane and rice fruit. Burn incense, light candles and set off paper cannons. The folk activities of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god can be traced back to the pre-Qin period, but at the beginning, the day of offering sacrifices to the kitchen god was not in the early years.

The meaning of the Spring Festival

China New Year has a long history. In the process of inheritance and development, it has formed sweeping dust, pasting couplets, eating New Year's Eve, celebrating New Year's Eve, dancing dragons and lions, offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, praying for disaster relief, sightseeing, boating, temple fairs, playing gongs and drums, cursor flags, putting lanterns and wine, and enjoying flowers and lanterns. Traditional festival ceremonies and related customs and activities are important contents of festival elements, bearing rich and colorful festival culture.

Off-year doesn't mean a certain day. Due to local customs, the days called off-year are different. During the off-year period, the main folk activities include sweeping dust and offering sacrifices to stoves. Before the Qing Dynasty, the traditional folk festival was the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. In most parts of the south, the old tradition of the 24th year of the twelfth lunar month is still maintained.