The Other China
北方小年
The Little Year 小年 , also known as The Little New Year, is the Festival of the Kitchen God — variously 竈爺節、祭灶節、送灶節、交年節 in Chinese — is a festival in the lunisolar calendar traditional celebrated a week before the Spring Festival New Year. Marking the beginning of new year festivities, The Little Year is when it was believed that the God of the Hearth would return to heaven to report on the goings-on of the household. The traditions surrounding the festival fell into desuetude under the Communists who for decades pursued policies aimed at writing over the past. Celebrating The Little Year has seen a modest revival.
In 2026, the Little Year fell on the 10th of February, or on the Twenty Third Day of the Eleventh Month of the Yisi Year of the Snake 乙巳年臘月廿三日. We mark the occasion with a painting by Lao Shu 老樹, a Beijing-based artist, writer and critic whose works are featured in The Other China. For his latest art work (and merch), see Lao Shu Paintings 老樹畫畫 at NetEase 網易, a site from which the following works are taken.
The Chinese rubric of this chapter in The Other China is 北方小年 — ‘The Little Year in North China’.
— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
12 February 2026
What to expect in the New Year?
You really gotta be prepared.
The key is to remind yourself:
just to keep on keeping on!
— Lao Shu, affirmation for myself
***
Source:
- 老樹日曆，2月10日，星期二，宜來年加油，《網易網》
***
Bru asks me what I think lies ahead,
good things or might they be bad?
I tell him just to chill out, since
you have to be patient and wait.
***
It Is What It Is
只論成就無一事，
要說得失有三高。
蛇年匆匆將過去，
馬年只好等著瞧。
What successes: lots of nothing.
Achievements: high blood pressure, n’all.
The Year of the Snake is slithering away
Let’s see what the Year of the Horse brings.