What is the custom of "23 candied melon sticks" in folk songs?

What custom does the familiar "23 melon sticks" refer to?

When I was a child, I especially looked forward to the arrival of the New Year after Laba, because after the New Year, all kinds of food were always prepared at home, and our snacks were delicious. So what are the eating customs of the New Year? Twenty-three honeydew melons refer to sesame candy eaten in early years. Sesame candy is also called kitchen candy. Besides kitchen candy, you should also eat other delicious food.

maltose

In most parts of the north, because off-year and offering sacrifices to stoves are on the same day, on off-year day, stove candy is a traditional food that every household should eat. Kitchen candy is made of maltose and then wrapped with sesame seeds. It tastes especially sweet, but it's a little sticky. It is said that the purpose of eating stove candy is to stick grandma Kitchen God's mouth, so that she can stop talking nonsense and make everything smooth and prosperous in the coming year!

Chinese dumpling

Jiaozi is the traditional food of our Chinese nation. As the saying goes, it's not as delicious as jiaozi, but it's always necessary to have a meal in jiaozi on major festivals. So off-year, jiaozi is naturally indispensable. When I was a child, I heard from my grandparents that there is a saying when I eat jiaozi next year, because we have always had the custom of "seeing off the windward side of jiaozi". In my next year, I will send jiaozi to bid farewell to Kitchen God and let him speak well of God!

baked wheaten cake

Many places also have the custom of eating fire in off-year. The fire here is what we usually call sesame cakes, but the sesame cakes we eat on this day must be round, and the more round the better! Because on this day of off-year, the wanderer will return to his hometown to reunite with his family, and the round fire symbolizes reunion. In addition, eating fire means prosperity in the coming year!

Fried corn

In the southeast of Shanxi, there has been a saying that "I don't eat roasted meat on the 23rd, but I pour the pot on the first day of the New Year". Therefore, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household will choose maltose to paste the fried corn into large pieces, which tastes crisp and sweet, and has the same effect as stove sugar.

New Year cake; rice cake

The rice cakes in the south are just like the goose meat in jiaozi in the north, but major festivals are never absent, so many places will choose to eat rice cakes in the off-year. The moral of the rice cake is that it rises year by year and is thriving!