Eating stove candy is one of the customs of Han people to celebrate the Spring Festival every year (65438+ February 23rd of the lunar calendar). It is the good wish of the working people of the Han nationality to predict that the Kitchen God will speak well in heaven and keep peace in the underworld. The candy that is drawn into a long strip is called "Guandong Sugar", and the candy that is drawn into a flat circle is called "Tanggua".
When it is placed outside in winter, because of the cold weather, the honeydew melon is solidified firmly, and there are some tiny bubbles in it, which tastes crisp and sweet and has a special flavor.
The reason for offering sugar to the stove is to stick the mouth of the stove owner. Legend has it that Lord Zao is a god sent by the Jade Emperor to supervise good and evil. He has the responsibility to communicate with people, contact the feelings between heaven and earth, and convey the information between fairyland and human beings. When it went to heaven, people gave it stove candy, hoping that it would eat sweets and say good things in front of the Jade Emperor. It is also said that the candy used for offering sacrifices to the stove is not stuck on the mouth of the stove owner, but on the mouth of the grandmother who is greedy and loves to gossip.
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Eat stove candy
At the end of the year, Fang Simei was the kitchen king, and the melons and ingots were all wheat candy. Why do you need to stick your mouth so much? Buy a shilling for the child to taste.
When offering sacrifices to the stove, in order to "say good things from heaven", the mouth of the kitchen god is coated with caramel; Ancient caramel, or gum enamel, or kitchen sugar, also known as kwantung sugar. After entering the wax market, there are honeydew melon, Sugar-Coated Berry, sugar ingot, sesame sugar and maitangguohua. Li E, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem called Sticking Teeth: Save things and people's wishes, provide for the old and add a dish. Polygonum hydropiper is dotted, and the powder cocoon is sticky.
Off-year doesn't mean a certain day. Due to local customs, the days called off-year are different. In the Northern Song Dynasty, off-year was not called off-year, but called "Lunar New Year Festival", which meant the alternation of lunar new year festivals before and after beginning of spring. It was called "Small Night" in the Southern Song Dynasty. During the off-year period, the main folk activities include posting Spring Festival couplets, sweeping dust and offering sacrifices to stoves.
Off-year has different concepts and dates in different places. It's the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month in the north and the 24th of the twelfth lunar month in the south. In Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the 24th of the twelfth lunar month and the night before New Year's Eve are all called off-year. In Nanjing, the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month is called off-year. The 16th day of the first month is celebrated in some parts of Yunnan, and New Year's Eve is celebrated in some minority areas in the southwest and north.
Off-year also means that people begin to prepare for new year's goods and have a clean and good year, which indicates that the new year will have a new atmosphere and expresses the good wishes of the working people in our country to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new.
References:
Eating stove candy-Baidu encyclopedia
Chinese New Year-Baidu Encyclopedia