Clean the house at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month
The folk proverb says, "On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, dust and sweep the house". After holding the sacrificial stove, I officially began to prepare for the New Year. Dust removal is year-end cleaning, which is called "house cleaning" in the north and "dust removal" in the south. Why do people dust? This is not only for a clean year, but also for offering sacrifices to God and ancestors.
Cleaning the dust before the Spring Festival is a traditional habit of China people. On the day of dusting, the whole family began to clean the house and yard together, scrub the pots and pans, dismantle and wash the bedding, and greet the New Year cleanly. In fact, people use the homonym of "dust" and "Chen" to express their willingness to get rid of the old and welcome the new.
According to ancient records, there was a habit of year-end cleaning in ancient times. According to Lu Chunqiu, China had the custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in the Yao and Shun era. According to the folk saying, because of the homonym of "dust" and "Chen", sweeping dust in the Spring Festival means "getting rid of the old and not being new", and its original intention is to sweep away all "unlucky" and "unlucky".