3. Eat Guandong candy Guandong candy, a sticky treat made out of glutinous millet and
sprouted wheat, is a traditional snack that Chinese people eat on the
Festival of the Kitchen God. 4. Paste paper-cuts to windows In the Little New Year, old couplets and paper-cuts from the previous
Spring Festival are taken down, and new window decorations, New Year's
posters, and auspicious decorations are pasted up. 5. Bath and hair-cut As the old Chinese saying goes, whether they're rich or poor, people
often have a haircut before the Spring Festival. The activity of taking
bath and haircut is often taken on the Little New Year. 6. Preparations for Spring Festival People start to stock up necessary provisions for the Spring Festival
since the Little New Year. Everything needed to make offerings to the
ancestors, entertain guests, and feed the family over the long holiday
must be purchased in advance. Before setting out to the market, a Spring Festival shopping list
must be made, including items such as meat, poultry and eggs, fruit and
vegetables, rice and flour, cigarettes, alcohol, sugar, and tea, red
paper, images of celestial horses and the Kitchen God. Incense and
candles, snacks, new calendars, and toys must also be purchased. Not to
be forgotten are new clothes for children and firecrackers to welcome in
the New Year. After Spring Festival provisions have been brought home, it's time to
make further preparations for the holiday. These preparations may
include preparing meat, packing blood sausages, making tofu, steaming
New Year's sticky rice cakes, and making fried bread. This must all be
done in advance, since no cooking may be done from New Year's Eve until
well into the first month of the New Year.
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