What is this "Small New Year", or "小年"?

[klortho]

Yesterday, here in Dalian, there was some celebrating going on, and a few people told me it was "Small New Year". I asked what it was all about, and nobody could tell me. Is it just the day that's a week before the New Year's?

I looked on the Internet a little bit, and all I could find was this Wikipedia article: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%A5%E8%8A%82#.E5.B0.8F.E5.B9.B4.E5.A4.A7.E5.B9.B4

(Nothing in the English version). From what I can make out, it's the 23rd or 24th day of the last month of those lunar years that have 29 days in the last month. Is that right?

That article also has a lot of stuff, which I can't read very well, about the Kitchen God going up to heaven. What's the story? Can anybody give me a reference with more information? (English would be prefered).

Thanks!

[笨笨德]

yeah, its just a lunar year in which the last month has 29 days.

[ruiskukka]

"xiaonian" which loosely translates to "little new year". We have two "xiaonian". One is exactly 1 week before the Chinese new year's day. The other is on the 5th day of the new year.

The first one is the day to send off the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God spends the whole year with the family, seeing and hearing everything. Once a year, he ascends to heaven to make his annual report to the highest spiritual being, the Jade Emperor. At this time-"xiaonian", the family gives him a farewell dinner with offerings of sweet cakes and preserved fruits. This is so he will say only sweet things, or, according to some, because it makes his mouth so sticky he will not be able to utter a single word. The latter one is the day to make yourself away from "xiaoren"-people who are mean to you. People make dumplings on this day.

[skylee]

We call the ritual regarding the kitchen god "謝灶". 謝 means thank, 灶 is the name of the kitchen god 灶君.