Thus, it’s called renri/jan jat (the people’s birthday). Every year, certain Chinese zodiac signs clash with the stars negatively, so temple visits are considered a good way to resolve those conflicts and bring peace in the coming months. To kick things off, festive cakes and puddings are made on the 24th day of the last lunar month (February 11 in 2026). Festivities often last for 15 days — sometimes even more — with different tasks and activities taking place over that period. Like many major holidays, Lunar New Year can be a lot of work.

Reunion dinners on New Year’s Eve

• The Dragon dance and the Southern Lion dance are customarily performed on that day.
• In the mid-2010s, Chinese messaging apps such as WeChat popularized the distribution of red envelopes in a virtual format via mobile payments, usually within group chats.
• It marks the departure of winter and the beginning of the spring season.
• The festival is also called « Lunar New Year » in English, despite the traditional Chinese calendar being lunisolar and not lunar.
• But you may have noticed that it doesn’t occur on this exact date every year.
• Breaking objects is considered a bad omen and is thought to bring bad luck.

Since then, on every New Year’s Eve, parents have wrapped coins in red paper to protect their children. Additionally, dumplings and spring rolls symbolize wealth, whereas sweet rice balls symbolize family togetherness. The pomelo, which is believed to bring constant prosperity, also has a pronunciation that symbolize good luck. Other traditional foods consist of noodles, fruits, dumplings, spring rolls, and Tangyuan, which are also known as sweet rice balls.
We’ve mentioned a lot about the colour red in the celebrations and what it symbolises. The colour red is believed to bring positivity and happiness and also ward off evil spirits. The red envelopes are a token of good fortune and symbolise good luck. Another long‑standing tradition is passing red envelopes, known as Hóngbāo, to friends and family.
As described by Song dynasty official Zhang Tangying in his book Shu Tao Wu, Volume 2, on the day of New Year’s Eve the emperor ordered the scholar Xin Yinxun to write the couplets on peach wood and hang them on the emperor’s bedroom door. During the Tang dynasty, people established the custom of sending bai nian tie (拜年帖, « New Year’s greetings »), New Year’s greeting cards. It evolved into the practice of cleaning one’s house thoroughly in the days preceding the Chinese New Year. In the Lüshi Chunqiu, in the Qin state, an exorcism ritual to expel illness, called « Big Nuo », was recorded as being carried out on the last day of the year. The 10th month celebration is believed to be one of the prototypes of Chinese New Year.The records of the first Chinese New Year celebration can be traced to the Warring States period (475 – 221 BC).
Chinese New Year festivities occur throughout Thailand, especially in provinces where many people of Chinese descent live, such as Nakhon Sawan, Suphan Buri, and Phuket. Hokkien households celebrate the Jade Emperor’s birthday, known colloquially as the « Hokkien New Year », on the ninth day, with offerings. Penang’s Chief Minister customarily hosts an « open house » for the public, while various other events take place across the city, including at the Chinese clan houses and the Snake Temple. However, transportation in eastern Taiwan and between Taiwan and its outlying islands is less convenient.
It is customary and polite for children to wish elders a happy new year and a year of happiness, health, and good fortune before accepting the red envelope. Red packets are generally given by married couples to the younger unmarried members of Ringospin Casino the family. In response, parents wrapped coins in red paper and placed them next to their children’s pillows. According to legend, a demon named Sui would pat a child on the head three times on New Year’s Eve, causing the child to have a fever.
According to legend, due to arrogance and misbehaviour, the horse’s wings were cut off and it was banished beneath Mount Kunlun. One popular narrative tells of the celestial horse, originally the Jade Emperor’s imperial steed. Beyond cosmological explanations, rich folk legends also recount the origin of the zodiac animals.
(If you haven’t prepared your own “gou” yet, here’s an easy recipe for radish cake, a beloved Lunar New Year dish.) That means eating these treats is believed to lead to improvements and growth in the coming year. This is why wearing the fiery color, along with hanging banners and lighting firecrackers or fireworks, are Lunar New Year traditions, all of which are still followed today. The man claimed to have scared Nian away by hanging red banners on his door, lighting firecrackers and donning red clothing. According to the legend, every Lunar New Year’s Eve this ferocious underwater beast with sharp teeth and horns would crawl onto the land and attack a nearby village.

Who was the Monster Nian?

The clever Snake coiled around the Horse’s hoof, managing to finish the race ahead of the Horse and causing the Horse to fall into the seventh place. According to Chinese mythology, the order of the zodiac animals was decided by a Great Race held by the Jade Emperor. The Chinese zodiac follows a 12-year cycle, with each year represented by a different animal. This story explains two important traditions—hanging red decorations and lighting firecrackers—representing victory over evil and a fresh start to the year.

All you need to know about the Chinese Year of the Dragon

One of the key celebrations is the Chinese New Year parade with floats and fireworks taking place along the streets in Chinatown, Manhattan, the largest Chinese New Year parade outside Asia. However, even smaller cities that are historically connected with Chinese immigration, such as Butte, Montana, have recently hosted parades. The common activities are the lion dance, dragon dance, New Year market, and food festival. The festival in Sydney is organized in partnership with a different Chinese province each year. The festival also attracts international media coverage, reaching millions of viewers in Asia.
Rescued by humans, the horse later repaid their kindness by assisting in agriculture and warfare, earning distinction and ultimately being chosen as one of the twelve zodiac animals. The pairing of the twelve Earthly Branches with twelve symbolic animals created the well-known zodiac cycle that continues to influence cultural life today. Known as Yuan Xiao Jie in Chinese, this festival is famous for its Yuan Xiao (sweet rice balls), whose round shape symbolizes family unity and togetherness. The Lunar New Year celebrations conclude with the Lantern Festival, falling on March 3rd, 2026, which marks the first full moon of the lunar year. The third day of the new year, February 19th, 2026, is traditionally a day for visiting temples. Nowadays, unfortunately, the focus has shifted more toward the amount rather than the goodwill it represents.
Word of the emperor’s gesture spread, and later it became the custom of people in general, who used Xuan paper instead of gold leaves. The poem describes people cleaning millet stacks, offering mijiu (rice wine) to guests, slaughtering lambs, visiting their master’s home, toasting him, and expressing wishes for longevity together. Before the new year celebration was established, ancient Chinese gathered and celebrated the end of the harvest in autumn.

• ‘Spring Festival’ is the standard and official term; people in Taiwan typically do not use « Spring Festival » in daily conversations.
• These practices reflect the enduring symbolic association between the horse and swift achievement.
• As an official public holiday, Chinese people can get nine days’ off from work, from February 4th to February 12.
• Pickles such as Laba garlic, which turns green from vinegar, are made on this day.
• During this time, many Koreans would visit their family, perform ancestral rites, wear the hanbok (한복; 韓服) / Chosŏn-ot (조선옷; 朝鮮옷), eat traditional food, and play traditional folk games.

Chinese New Year Calendar (1930 –

Buy yourself a Chinese-style coat, get your kids tiger-head hats and shoes, and decorate your home with some beautiful red Chinese knots, then you will have an authentic Chinese-style Spring Festival. In stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and other cities, products of traditional Chinese style have started to lead fashion trends. Red couplets and red lanterns are displayed on the door frames and light up the atmosphere. For example, in 2013, New Year’s Eve (9 February) fell on a Saturday and New Year’s Day (10 February) on a Sunday. In 1967, during the Cultural Revolution, official Chinese New Year celebrations were banned in China.
The preparation begins on the first of the Lunar Calendar and the celebration lasts until the 15th of the first month. The Chinese zodiac year begins with Chinese New Year, thus changing the cycle to a new animal. One popular Chinese New Year tradition is the thorough cleaning of one’s home to rid the residence of any lingering bad luck.

The parade is attended by some 500,000 people, along with another 3 million TV viewers. They invited a variety of other groups from the city to participate, and they marched down what today are Grant Avenue and Kearny Street, carrying colourful flags, banners, lanterns, drums, and firecrackers to drive away evil spirits. In 1849, with the discovery of gold and the ensuing California Gold Rush, over 50,000 people came to San Francisco to seek their fortune or just a better way of life. The festival incorporates Grant and Kearny Streets into its street festival and parade route, respectively. The San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade is the oldest and one of the largest events of its kind outside of Asia, and one of the largest Asian cultural events in North America. Many communities throughout all of California celebrate with large celebrations taking place in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, as well as in Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Rosa, and Stockton.
Geomancy masters may interpret the data differently, but there is usually a consensus on what the year means for each zodiac animal based on the positions of the stars. Your personal zodiac animal sign is determined by your year of birth, meaning 2026 will welcome plenty of baby Horses. Whether you’re unfamiliar with the occasion or need a refresher, this guide to ushering in the Year of the Horse has you covered. Religious activities and preparations for Lunar New Year would begin on this day.
In Taiwan in the 2000s, some employers also gave red packets as a bonus to maids, nurses, or domestic workers from Southeast Asian countries, although whether this is appropriate is controversial. Incense, tea, fruits, vegetarian food or roasted pig, and gold paper are served as customary protocol for paying respect to an honored person. While large firework displays are popular in some places, Taiwan tends to focus more on temple visits, lantern-lighting ceremonies, and family reunions.citation needed ‘Spring Festival’ is the standard and official term; people in Taiwan typically do not use « Spring Festival » in daily conversations.

The beast is said to have terrorised people every year, until he was defeated due to his fear of red, loud noises and fire. Primarily in traditional Chinese culture, the colour red originates from the myth of a monster called Nian. This is why many people clean their homes before the celebrations, as many clean to remove any misfortune or bad luck lingering ahead of the new year. The 15-day festival is about saying goodbye to the past year and, like the season of spring itself, symbolises renewal. This is because it marks the beginning of the spring season and the end of winter in the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. While celebrations and traditions take place annually, the exact date of the Lunar New Year changes every year as it begins with the arrival of a new moon, which signifies the start of a new month.
Using the broom, swearing, and breaking any dinnerware without appeasing the deities are also considered taboo. Typical actions such as lighting fires and using knives are considered taboo; thus, all consumable food has to be cooked beforehand. It is a traditional practice to light fireworks, burn bamboo sticks and firecrackers, and perform a lion dance to ward off evil spirits.
If you are interested in any one of the festivals, China Xian Tour can recommend you the cities with strong festival atmosphere and then tailor a trip to include more unique experiences of the festival. The common things to avoid are that do not speak bad words, break things or sweep the floor (in case you sweep out the good luck). In solar calendar, it is usually between January 20th – February 20th. All the family members gather together to enjoy a fancy dinner, which symbolizes family harmony, reunion and happiness. When choosing gifts, attention should be paid to practicality and the preferences of the recipient, as well as the festival cultural connotations and social etiquette. —Wishing you a happy new year, good luck, and all the best!