Little New Year traditionally honors which household deity?

Little New Year traditionally honors the Kitchen God.

Known in Chinese as Zao Jun or Zao Shen, the Kitchen God is a domestic deity associated with the hearth and the well-being of a household. Little New Year, or Xiaonian, falls on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in northern China and usually the 24th in southern China.

According to traditional belief, the Kitchen God travels to Heaven at this time to report the family's conduct to the Jade Emperor. Families may burn or replace his paper image, light firecrackers, and offer food, incense, or sticky sweets. The sweets are symbolically intended to sweeten his report—or keep him from saying anything unfavorable.

The holiday is sometimes mistaken for Chinese New Year's Eve because both involve major preparations, but Little New Year comes roughly a week earlier. Cleaning the home, preparing decorations, and buying festive foods are among its broader customs.