MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Little New Year

Speak well of us in heaven, keep us safe on earth

Introduction

The kitchen god is sent off on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth month, opening the New Year season

Little New Year falls on the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, the 23rd in most of the north and the 24th in much of the south, and its central rite is the offering to the kitchen god. Stove worship was one of the ancient five household sacrifices, and the Eastern Han Simin yueling already calls the day after the la day the 'little new year'; in the Northern Song the stove rite merged with the 'year-crossing' on the 24th, when, as the Dongjing menghua lu records, households sent off the god with wine and fruit and pasted a paper stove horse above the stove. The kitchen god was believed to report the family's deeds to heaven, so he was offered sticky sweets with the prayer 'speak well of us in heaven, keep us safe on earth'. Cleaning and New Year shopping follow, and the Spring Festival season begins.

Timeline

Song dynasty to present
1147 · OriginBook 10 of the Dongjing menghua lu records the 'year-crossing' on the 24th of the twelfth month in Kaifeng: households sent off the god with wine and fruit, pasted a paper stove horse above the stove and smeared wine lees on the stove door to 'make the Siming drunk'; an early reliable record of the 24th-day stove rite.1270 · EvolutionZhou Mi's Wulin jiushi records that the Southern Song palace called the 24th of the twelfth month the 'little festival night' and the 30th the 'great festival night', the later Little and Great New Year's Eves.1635 · EvolutionThe Dijing jingwu lüe (1635) records that in Ming Beijing the kitchen god was offered sugar cakes, millet cakes, dates, chestnuts, walnuts and roasted beans on the 24th, and his horse was fed with distiller's grains and hay, before he rose to heaven to report on the household.1700 · EvolutionIn the Qing the official stove rite moved to the 23rd; the north followed, while much of the south kept the 24th.
  1. 1147OriginBook 10 of the Dongjing menghua lu records the 'year-crossing' on the 24th of the twelfth month in Kaifeng: households sent off the god with wine and fruit, pasted a paper stove horse above the stove and smeared wine lees on the stove door to 'make the Siming drunk'; an early reliable record of the 24th-day stove rite.Literature › Record of a Dream of Splendour in the Eastern Capital: Juan 10
  2. 1270EvolutionZhou Mi's Wulin jiushi records that the Southern Song palace called the 24th of the twelfth month the 'little festival night' and the 30th the 'great festival night', the later Little and Great New Year's Eves.Literature › Old Affairs of Wulin
  3. 1635EvolutionThe Dijing jingwu lüe (1635) records that in Ming Beijing the kitchen god was offered sugar cakes, millet cakes, dates, chestnuts, walnuts and roasted beans on the 24th, and his horse was fed with distiller's grains and hay, before he rose to heaven to report on the household.Literature › Sights and Scenes of the Imperial Capital
  4. 1700EvolutionIn the Qing the official stove rite moved to the 23rd; the north followed, while much of the south kept the 24th.