It’s the third day of The Lunar New Year, (known asChigou.) It literally means “red dog“, an epithet of “the God of Blazing Wrath“. It is considered an unlucky day to have guests or go visiting.
So people don’t like to go out on this day, otherwise they might lose their temper easily and become argumentative. Actually, After a 2-day binge of, eating, drinking, playing, gambling, many people are tired and would probably want to sleep in. They said that if people want to work on this day, they won’t get much accomplished. Therefore, the Red Dog day is a good excuse for people who need a rest.
Today is also known as the Mice Wedding Day.
They said that people should turn off the light and go to bed early, because the night is the Mice’s Wedding and one shouldn’t disturb them. The other reason people should turn out the lights, so the mice can’t see their wedding, which would slow down mice breeding. In the old farmer society, people would leave a few grains of rice or cake crumbs in the corner of a room for the mice at night.
The Haus of Dcaligari 