The Little New Year, a week before the lunar new year, is when the Stove God goes up to report. The household sets out sticky malt sugar, sweet dumplings or in some regions wine; the explanations given are that the sugar glues his mouth shut so he cannot inform, that it sweetens whatever he says, or that the wine will muddle him — and households happily offer all three explanations at once. The paper image is then taken down and burned, sometimes with a paper horse to carry him and fodder for it, and firecrackers see him off. On New Year's Eve a fresh image is pasted up to welcome him back for the coming year, usually flanked by a couplet asking him to speak well of the family in heaven and bring peace back down. It is a small rite and it is one of the most reliably kept in the Chinese calendar, including in households that would describe themselves as having no religion.