Little New Year ( zh, 小年), also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God, is a festival in the traditional lunisolar

Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar ��曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar ��曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar ��曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...

. It honors the

Kitchen God The Kitchen deity – also known as the Stove God, named Zao Jun, Zao Shen, Zao kimjah, Cokimjah or Zhang Lang – is the most important of a plethora of Chinese domestic gods that protect the hearth and family. The Kitchen God is recognized in C ...

and takes place on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth month in the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to roughly a week before the

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

Traditional Activities

* Sacrifices to the Kitchen God When little new year rolls around the

Jade Emperor The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three ...

decides accordingly to the family's yearly behavior to decide if he will reward or punish them. The Kitchen God serves as the messenger to report back to the Jade Emperor. Folks burn a paper image of the god in order to dispatch his spirit into heaven to do so and afterwards they put a new image next to the stove to welcome him back in order to oversee and protect the family again. While that happens, sacrifices are made to him in hopes to seal his mouth and leading him to only saying good things about the family. * House Cleaning House cleaning happens between the eighth day of the last lunar month (when

Laba Festival Laba Festival () is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the month of La (or Layue 臘月), the twelfth month of the Chinese calendar. It is the beginning of the Chinese New Year period. It is customary on this day to ea ...

happens) and Little New Year, Chinese beliefs call for folks to clean themselves and their housing since it is said that ghosts and spirits must either return to Heaven or stay on Earth. So to ensure that they leave, people clean every corner of their home. During this time, the house is also cleaned with the goal of making it anti-virus so the new year does not start with a sickness. * Eating Guandong Candy Guandong candy is a treat made of glutinous millet and sprouted wheat. It is said that if your mouth was full of candy you wouldn't be able to bad-mouth others. * Pasting Paper Cuts to The Window Chinese_New_Year_Red_Envelopes

Similarly to the kitchen god picture, the old paper cuts are taken down and then new ones are put up and it is an indication to the beginning of spring. The paper cuts are usually of the word 福 indicating the peoples wish for a lucky year. The cut is also usually up side down since in Chinese up side downs sounds like "to arrive" so they are wishing for luck to arrive. * Spring Festival Preparation The preparation process has to be all done in advance. There is a wide variety to things to do and prepare with most of them revolving around the word "new", often new clothing. Things like firecrackers are bought to use as celebration and a popular item is the

red envelopes In East and Southeast Asian cultures, a red envelope, red packet or red pocket () is a monetary gift given during holidays or for special occasions such as a wedding, a graduation, or the birth of a baby. Although the red envelope was populari ...

since it is the peoples belief for the young ones to "respect the elderly" and in return the elderly "love the youth", usually it is money inside the red envelopes.

References

{{China-festival-stub Chinese New Year