Little New Year
10 February 2026 · movable holiday — I swept the house and sweetened the report – may the new year be kind!
Xiaonian, or the Little New Year, is a folk festival in China that marks the start of preparations for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). By tradition it falls on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month in northern regions and on the 24th in the south. The day is linked to honouring the Kitchen God, the household spirit of the hearth, who is believed to return to heaven and report on the family's conduct. To keep the report kind, people offer him sweet things such as malt candy, and sometimes smear a little on the lips of his image. The other key custom is the great house cleaning: sweeping away bad luck and old things so the new year meets a fresh, tidy home. The festival follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar, so its date in the Gregorian calendar shifts each year, usually landing in late January or February. Local customs vary from region to region.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines like a constellation, a small sprite carrying a broom over one shoulder and a tiny cluster of candy-like stars in the other hand, drifting across the night sky
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