Custom: Sacrificing a stove is an important activity on the day of off-year. The southern off-year is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month and the northern off-year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. The kitchen god's duty is to control the kitchen fire and manage the diet. Sacrificing stoves has a history of thousands of years in China, and the belief in kitchen god is a reflection of people's dream of "having enough to eat and wear".
Sweeping the house on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month: From the 24th to the New Year's Eve, we folks call this period "Spring Festival Day", also called "Dust-sweeping Day". "Dust removal" means year-end cleaning. On this day, every household should clean the environment, clean all kinds of utensils, tear down and wash bedding curtains, clean the courtyard of Liu Lu, dust off cobwebs and dredge culverts in open channels.
Extended data:
Off-year is considered as the beginning of a busy year, which means that people begin to prepare new year's goods, sweep dust and offer sacrifices to stoves. And prepare for a clean and beautiful year, expressing people's good wishes to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. Due to different local customs, the days called "off-year" are different.
Some places in modern China say "three officials, three people, four boats and five boats", which means that the official off-year is the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the people's family is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month and the family boat is the 25th of the twelfth lunar month. In fact, there is no distinction between "official off-year" and "civilian off-year", but the concept and date of off-year in different regions are different, and the official off-year and civilian off-year in the same region are the same.