Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is a 15–16 day celebration marking the start of the new lunar year and the arrival of spring. In 2026, Chinese New Year’s Day falls on Tuesday, 17 February, and celebrations end with the Lantern Festival on 3 March.
It is the most important traditional holiday in China and is now widely observed in many Asian communities and Chinatowns worldwide. In 2024, UNESCO even added the Spring Festival to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognizing its deep cultural and social significance.
Preparation for Chinese New Year starts weeks before the first day of the new lunar year. Families carry out a thorough house cleaning to “sweep away” bad luck from the old year and make space for new blessings. This ritual cleaning often includes rearranging or repairing household items to signal a fresh start.
Homes are then decorated with red lanterns, paper cuttings, and Spring Festival couplets bearing messages of fortune, happiness, and longevity. Red dominates because it is considered a powerful color for driving away misfortune and attracting prosperity. In the days leading up to the festival, families also stock up on special foods, gifts, and new clothes for the holiday period.
Chinese New Year’s Eve is centered on family reunion and shared meals. The reunion dinner is widely regarded as the most important family meal of the year, bringing together several generations around one table. People travel long distances to make it home, leading to one of the largest annual human migrations in the world.
The menu is full of symbolic dishes: fish for abundance, dumplings for wealth, sticky rice cake for progress, and spring rolls for prosperity. Many families watch a New Year gala on television while they eat, blending traditional customs with modern entertainment. After dinner, parents and elders give children red envelopes filled with money to wish them health, growth, and good luck in the new year.
Staying up until midnight—known as shousui, or “keeping watch over the year”—is another widely observed custom. As the clock strikes twelve, fireworks and firecrackers light up the sky to “chase away” bad spirits and welcome the new year with noise and color.
The first day of Chinese New Year sets the tone for the year ahead, so many people avoid arguments, breaking objects, or using negative words. Setting off firecrackers and fireworks is believed to bring a luckier year for business, farming, and personal fortune.
People put on new clothes—often in red—to symbolize a new beginning and to attract good luck. Families visit older relatives to offer greetings like “gongxi” (congratulations) and wish them health and longevity. In urban areas, younger people increasingly send digital greetings or mobile red envelopes when they cannot visit in person.
Public celebrations add to the festive atmosphere. Lion and dragon dances, temple fairs, and street performances are common in many cities, especially in southern China and regions such as Hong Kong and Macau. These performances are meant to bring luck to communities, businesses, and households for the coming year.
The festival continues well beyond the first day, with each date carrying its own customs. The second day is traditionally when married daughters return to their parents’ home with gifts and red envelopes, reinforcing family ties after marriage. Between days three and seven, many people visit relatives and friends, while avoiding sweeping the house too early to prevent “sweeping away” accumulated good luck.
By around the eighth day, many businesses reopen, timing their first working day with the auspicious number eight, which is strongly associated with wealth and success in Chinese culture. This balance between extended celebration and return to work reflects both tradition and modern economic life.
The fifteenth day marks the Lantern Festival, which officially closes the Spring Festival period. People light and display lanterns in streets, parks, and temples, or release them into the sky or onto rivers, creating a striking nighttime scene. In many regions, people also eat sweet glutinous rice balls known as tangyuan, symbolizing family unity and completeness.
Chinese New Year is not celebrated in exactly the same way everywhere. In northern China, dumplings are the must‑have New Year’s Eve food, while in many southern regions people favor spring rolls or sticky rice cakes. Customs such as temple visits, vegetarian meals on the first day, or specific taboos can vary widely between provinces and cities.
Outside mainland China, communities in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan add their own local touches while keeping core traditions like reunion dinners and red envelopes. Beyond Asia, major cities such as London, New York, San Francisco, Paris, and Los Angeles host large public parades with lion and dragon dances, fireworks, and streets decorated in red and gold. These global celebrations show how the Spring Festival has become a shared cultural event, rooted in Chinese heritage but open to anyone who wants to join.
Contenido GEC