Celebrating Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year is celebrated on February 17, marking the first new moon of the lunar calendar and kicks off the 15-day Spring Festival. Called “Chinese New Year” in the past, Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries beyond China. 2026 is the Year of the Horse, representing confidence, independence, and forward momentum following the reflective Year of the Snake.
Lunar New Year is marked by many traditions. It is a time to reunite with immediate and extended family. At home, families may decorate windows with red paper cuttings and adorn doors with couplets expressing auspicious wishes for the new year. Shopping for holiday sundries in open-air markets and cleaning the house in advance of the holiday are also beloved traditions. On New Year’s Day, family members receive red envelopes containing small amounts of money.
A family reunion dinner is usually held on Lunar New Year’s Eve, which falls on February 16 this year. The menu is carefully chosen to include dishes associated with luck, including fish (the Chinese word for it also sounds like “surplus”), puddings (symbolizes advancement), and foods that look like gold ingots (like dumplings).
The final day of the holiday is the Lantern Festival, which celebrates the first full moon of the year and marks the departure of winter and the beginning of the spring season. On this day, people light lanterns to symbolize driving out darkness and bringing hope to the coming year. Cities worldwide put on massive lantern displays and fairs on the festival’s final day.
In many cultures, each year is also associated with an animal from the zodiac. Often the animals are the same across different Asian countries, including China, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore, and Cambodia.
