The Little New Year means that people begin to prepare New Year's goods and prepare to have a good New Year. It means that the New Year will have a new atmosphere, and expresses the good wishes of the working people of the Han nationality to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, and to welcome good luck and receive blessings.
The origin of the small year
Generally speaking, the small year is relative to the big year.
The Xiaonian Festival is a traditional festival for the Han people in my country, also known as the Kitchen Festival, the Kitchen Festival, the Kitchen King Festival, and the Kitchen Festival.
The Xiaonian Festival is a day for people to offer sacrifices to stoves. There is also a legend about stove sacrifices. Since every household has a stove, the Jade Emperor sent a stove god to each house to supervise and inspect the stoves in this year. On the day of the Little New Year, the Stove Lord will go to heaven to report the good and evil of this year to the Jade Emperor, and let the Jade Emperor reward and punish him. Therefore, when every household sacrifices to the stove, they must melt Guandong sugar with fire and apply it on the mouth of the Stove Lord. Go up, so that he can't say bad things in front of the Jade Emperor.
The Kitchen Festival is actually a festival for families to send off the Kitchen God to heaven. There is a ceremony to send off the Kitchen God to heaven, and there is a ceremony to receive the Kitchen King from heaven. On the night of New Year's Eve, the Kitchen King and the gods will come to earth to celebrate the New Year. On that day, there must be ceremonies to "receive the stove" and "receive the gods".
Extended information:
This festival is very interesting. The date is uncertain, in some places it is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, in other places it is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. But no matter what, people who have been working hard for almost a whole year will plan to have a comfortable New Year.
Little New Year is the beginning of the New Year.
"Twenty-three, sticky melons with sugar"
"New Year ballads" are spread all over the country. Although some words are slightly different, the first sentence is almost always "Twenty-three, sticky." Tanggua is sticky." Therefore, "eating sugar melons" is a very important custom in Xiaonian.
The main raw material of Tanggua is maltose, which is mixed with some yellow rice and boiled. It is very sticky. If it is stretched into a long strip, it is called "Guandong sugar"; if it is rolled into an oblate shape, it is called "sugar melon".
You can put sugar melons outside the house in winter. Because of the severe cold weather, the sugar melon solidified very solidly, but there were some tiny bubbles inside. It tasted cool, crispy, sweet and crispy, with a unique flavor.
In ancient times, sugar melon was also called "Jiao Ya Xie", and "Xie" refers to sugar. The name introduces the stickiness of this kind of pastry. The great poet Bai Juyi once wrote, "After the New Year's Eve, we recommend the orchid tail wine, and in the spring, we recommend the glutinous rice cake first." This shows that this kind of candy was already a popular seasonal food at that time.
Sacrifice the stove and give it to the Kitchen Lord
Tanggua also has an important role, that is, it should be given to the "Kitchen Lord" as a "sacrifice to the stove" on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.
"Kitchen Lord" is also known as Kitchen King and Kitchen King. There has always been a legend among the people: "The Stove Lord" was originally a commoner named Zhang Sheng. After marrying his wife, he lived and drank all day long, and eventually he was reduced to begging for a living. One day, he arrived at the door of his ex-wife's house begging for food. He was so ashamed that he ducked under the stove and burned himself to death.
When the Jade Emperor found out, he thought that he still had a sense of shame and was not bad enough. Since he died at the bottom of the pot, he named him the Kitchen King. Every year on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month, people go to heaven to report the good and evil deeds of each household, and they go back again on the 30th or first day of the first lunar month.
The image of the "Kitchen Lord" in folk New Year pictures is always a kind-hearted old man, sometimes with a portrait of "Kitchen Lord's Grandma". According to custom, people have to offer sacrifices to the Stove Lord on the New Year's Day to see off the Stove Lord, and also serve a plate of candied melons.
The specific ceremony is to take off the old statue first, tie a straw horse with straw for the Kitchen God, stick a piece of sticky sugar melon on the Stove God's mouth, and then burn it with the straw horse. That is "Cizao".
Folklore expert Xiao Fang said that offering sacrifices to the kitchen stove is an important custom in the traditional Xiaonian Festival, and the name Kitchen God already appeared during the Warring States Period.
Bumps and bumps are inevitable in folk daily life. People are worried about the Kitchen God snitching, so they get close to it, commonly known as "Mei Zao". When offering stove sweets to the Stove Lord, pray, "Spicy, sweet and smelly, the Stove Lord will not say anything" and hope that he will say more good things after he ascends to heaven.
Reference material: People's Daily Online_Xianlai Talk about "Little Year": Why are its dates different?