The Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is the most important traditional festival in China and is celebrated for fifteen days. There are many customs relating to food, decorations, greetings, and gifts. Here is a daily itinerary for the festival in 2014.
Pre-Chinese New Year Preparations
Worshipping the Kitchen God (23rd of Layue)
Chinese New Year for some people begins on Kitchen God's Day.
In ancient China, governments offered sacrifices to the kitchen god
and prayed for blessings on the 23rd of Layue (腊月the twelfth month of
the lunar year), and common families and boat dwellers did so on 24th
of Layue and 25th of Layue respectively.
\Worshipping the kitchen god has great influence all over China. In
ancient times nearly every family had a kitchen god shrine in their
kitchen. It is said that the kitchen god was authorized by the Jade
Emperor to be in charge of the stove, and thus he is worshipped by
Chinese as the patron god of the family.
In the legend, the kitchen god stays at a family from New Year's Eve,
protec
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