Twenty-three, the altar official. 1February 23rd is a folk festival of offering sacrifices to stoves in China. In order for the Kitchen God to speak well of the Jade Emperor in the sky, every household should put on the memorial tablet of the Kitchen God, and some even wrote "Good words from the sky and good luck from the bottom" on both sides of the memorial tablet. It means Kitchen God's farewell dinner.
After the sacrifice, everyone was busy buying new year's goods and cleaning the house to welcome the New Year, especially cigarettes, wine, fish, meat and gifts for relatives. I have been busy buying new year's goods until the twelfth lunar month. There is also a folk song celebrating the Spring Festival in Kaifeng today: "Twenty-three, offering sacrifices to the kitchen officials; Twenty-four, sweeping the house; Twenty-five, tofu; Twenty-six, cut meat; Twenty-seven, kill a chicken; Twenty-eight, kill a duck; Twenty-nine, go to play wine; 30 years old, put up a door flag. "
New Year's Eve is always called New Year's Eve, and every household should put up Spring Festival couplets. In the past, Kaifeng had many old customs. Such as official seal, military attache seal, official seal, storytelling seal, begging seal and so on. The most important folk activities are ancestor worship and New Year's Eve. Now on New Year's Eve, Kaifeng people still follow many good customs in the past. Although there is no more "ancestor worship" on New Year's Eve. However, some people visit relatives and friends, watch TV and solve riddles on the lanterns until late at night, and some families get together to encourage each other, sum up the gains of the past year and make work and study plans for the new year. "Shounian" has given new content in the new era. When the midnight bell rang, people scrambled to set off the first firecrackers, which meant the determination and enthusiasm of Kaifeng people to open up the future.
On the first day of the first month, every family gets up early, changes into new clothes and finishes washing. First, they set off firecrackers to pay homage to the portraits of their ancestors. Then, the younger generation pays New Year greetings to the elders, who will give them "lucky money". In 2008, the whole family ate in jiaozi, and then began to pay New Year greetings to relatives and friends. In the old days, New Year greetings were generally led by parents, who first visited their elders, relatives and friends, and then went to distant homes. Every family has cigarettes, tea, melon seeds, peanuts, candy and so on. In order to wait for the new year guests. According to Kaifeng's habit of "paying New Year's greetings early and offering birthday felicitations late", the New Year's greetings ended on the afternoon of the first day of the New Year.
The second day of the first month is the day when girls return to their parents' homes. On the second day of the old day, firecrackers, horns and whistles were heard in the four townships of Kaifeng Chengguan, and mules and horses came and went in an endless stream.
The third day of the first month is the day to worship ancestors and sweep graves. Because the old calendar says that this day is "not suitable for everything", it is forbidden to visit relatives in Kaifeng on the third day. The fifth day is the fifth festival. People think that the fifth day is the first unlucky day after the New Year, so relatives and friends should also avoid visiting each other. In addition to these two days, Kaifeng folks visited relatives and friends during the festival, and there were few leisure days.