小年：日期差异与多样习俗
Little New Year,or Xiaonian, is usually a week before the Spring Festival, which falls on a different date between January 21 and February 20 each year. Little New Year is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God.
The date of this festival is different in different places, with people in northern China celebrating it on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, and people in southern China celebrating it on the twenty-fourth.
Here are some things you should know about the Little New Year.
1) Offer sacrifices (祭品) to Kitchen God
The offerings to the Kitchen God include a pig’s head, fish, fruit, dumplings and so on. Most of the offerings are all kinds of sweets. It is thought that this will seal the Kitchen God’s mouth and encourage Kitchen God to only say good things about the family when he rises to heaven to make his report.
2) House cleaning
Between Laba Festival, on the eighth day of the last lunar month, and Little New Year, on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day, families around China make a house cleaning, sweeping out the old in preparation for the New Year.
3) Bath and hair-cut
As the old Chinese saying goes, whether they’re rich or poor, people often have a haircut before the Spring Festival. The activity of taking a bath and haircut is often taken on Little New Year.
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