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What do you mean by sweeping the dust?
Dust sweeping is the custom of cleaning indoor and outdoor dust when the Lunar New Year approaches.

Also known as dust removal, slag removal, dust removal and dust removal. The folk proverb of sweeping dust says: on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, clean the house. The north is called cleaning the house and the south is called dust removal. Indoor and outdoor, behind the house, thoroughly clean up, clothes and appliances, wash a new look, and greet the Spring Festival cleanly. Everyone is preparing for the Spring Festival.

For example, before and after the sacrifice of the stove to New Year's Eve, there is a general cleaning, and the dust accumulated under the bed of the corner and the beam of the house for a year must be removed with a broom on this day; Metal handles on cabinets should also be wiped clean.

There is also a saying that sweeping dust refers to sweeping the dust on the roof. It is inconvenient to clean the roof at ordinary times. After a long time, there will be dust, and if you don't live long, there will be cobwebs. Therefore, there will be a special activity to clean the dust on the roof before the new year, so that you can have a clean new year, and of course, it means to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.

However, this day is also very particular. As the saying goes, "it takes 18 days to sweep, and 19 days to sweep", that is, on the 18th and 19th of the twelfth lunar month, the whole house can only be cleaned after sweeping the roof, so that a clean New Year can be held on the 23rd to welcome the Kitchen God, and the days after that are to make new clothes, cut window coverings and kill pigs and sheep for the New Year.

Historical legends about sweeping dust:

Since ancient times, China people have been following the custom of "sweeping the dust" before the Spring Festival. Call: twenty-four, clean the house. Legend has it that everyone is attached to a three-corpse god. He often reports to the Jade Emperor and speaks ill of the world. In a very short time, the Jade Emperor received 99999 tips from him, saying that the world was going to rebel against heaven. The jade emperor was furious when he saw it. He immediately summoned three resin gods and ordered him to write down the crimes of people who spoke ill of the jade emperor on the wall, and then let the spider make a big net and hang it under the eaves.

The Jade Emperor also ordered the lower boundary of the Tomb Palace on New Year's Eve. Anyone who sees a family marked by three bodies of God will be beheaded. Seeing that the plot was about to succeed, they could monopolize the beautiful world. The three resin gods quickly descended to earth and marked the walls of each house. The kitchen god discovered the conspiracy of three corpse gods, and quickly found the kitchen gods of each family to discuss countermeasures: from the day the kitchen delivered it, every family should clean it up before New Year's Eve.

Visiting the Tomb Palace on New Year's Eve, I found that every household was clean, and the people took their places and worked hard. The Jade Emperor learned from the Tomb Palace and the Kitchen God that the Three Corpses God had wronged a good man and was furious. He kept the Three Corpses God in prison forever. Since then, the kind kitchen god has been embraced by everyone. Every year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, offering sacrifices to stoves and sweeping dust has become a folk custom. Now people clean the house because the house they have lived in for a year is coming, so they need to clean the house to prepare for a clean New Year.