Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, starts on the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February, so its date changes every year. The next one is Saturday, 6 February 2027, which opens the Year of the Goat, a Fire Goat year. New Year's Eve falls on Friday, 5 February 2027, and the celebrations run for 15 days until the Lantern Festival on Saturday, 20 February 2027.
This guide explains how the date is worked out, how the twelve zodiac animals and five elements fit together, what families actually do across the fortnight, and where visitors can see the festival at its best in China and Hong Kong. It also covers the practical side: the world's biggest annual travel rush, what closes, and the customs that are easy to get wrong as a guest.
Two things are worth learning before you go. The greeting is "xinnian kuaile" in Mandarin and "gong hei fat choi" in Cantonese, and the lucky colour is red, with eight as the lucky number.
Chinese New Year dates and zodiac animals by year
Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February and begins the Year of the Goat. The table shows recent and upcoming dates with their animal and element. The date jumps back again in 2028, when the Year of the Monkey starts as early as 26 January, so anyone planning a trip around the festival two years ahead should not assume a mid-February date.
Chinese New Year dates, 2023 to 2028
| Year | New Year's Day | Animal and element |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 22 January | Water Rabbit |
| 2024 | 10 February | Wood Dragon |
| 2025 | 29 January | Wood Snake |
| 2026 | 17 February | Fire Horse |
| 2027 | 6 February | Fire Goat |
| 2028 | 26 January | Earth Monkey |
Mainland China gives an official public holiday of about a week around the festival, with weekend working days moved to create a longer break. The State Council had not yet published the 2027 schedule by October 2026, but it is expected to start on New Year's Eve, 5 February. Hong Kong and Macau have three public holidays and Taiwan about five. Factories, offices and many family-run shops close; malls, hotels, tourist sites and chain restaurants in big cities stay open, often with shorter hours.
How the Chinese New Year date is calculated
The festival follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which uses the moon for months and the sun for the seasons. New Year's Day is the second new moon after the winter solstice, which always lands between 21 January and 20 February.
Since 12 May 2017 the rules have been fixed in a national standard, GB/T 33661-2017, "Calculation and Promulgation of the Chinese Calendar", issued by the Standardization Administration of China. New moons and solar terms are worked out from astronomical data in China Standard Time (UTC+8), and the first lunar month with no major solar term becomes the leap month. Time zones matter: in 1968 North Vietnam used UTC+7 while the south used Beijing time, and the two halves of the country celebrated Tet on different days.
Each lunar month begins on a new moon and lasts 29 or 30 days, so twelve lunar months come to about 354 days, eleven short of a solar year. To keep the calendar in step with the seasons, a leap month is added roughly every three years. That is why the Gregorian date jumps back by about eleven days one year and forward by up to a month the next. The name Spring Festival, or Chunjie, comes from the farming calendar, where the new year marked the turn from winter towards spring.
The twelve Chinese zodiac animals and five elements
The Chinese zodiac is a 12-year cycle of animals, and each year also carries one of five elements. Combining the two gives a full cycle of 60 years.
The animals run in a fixed order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water, and each covers two consecutive years, which is why 2026 was a Fire Horse year and 2027 is a Fire Goat year. A sign returns with the same element only every 60 years, so a 60th birthday carries special weight in Chinese families.
The Goat is also translated as Sheep or Ram, because the Chinese word yang covers all three. People born in Goat years, including 1991, 2003 and 2015, are traditionally described as gentle, artistic and calm. The Dragon, the only mythical animal in the cycle, is the most popular sign; maternity wards in China and across the diaspora often get busier in Dragon years.
Zodiac compatibility and the "ben ming nian" belief
Traditional Chinese astrology pairs signs that get along and signs that clash. The Goat, for example, is said to match best with the Rabbit and the Pig and to clash with the Ox.
A widely followed belief, ben ming nian, holds that the year of your own sign is unlucky. People entering their animal's year wear red for protection, often red underwear or a red string bracelet given by a parent or partner. Plenty of younger Chinese read the horoscopes for fun, yet the red bracelet stays on all the same.
The belief is tied to Tai Sui, the deity said to govern each year. People whose sign matches or clashes with the year are said to "offend Tai Sui", and in Taiwan and many overseas Chinese communities they visit a temple early in the lunar year for a ceremony called An Tai Sui, which gives a protective talisman meant to last the year. In 2027 that applies to anyone born in a Goat year (1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 or 2015) and, by tradition, to the Ox. If you were born in January or February, check the exact New Year date for your birth year before working out your sign.
How Chinese New Year is celebrated, from cleaning day to Lantern Festival
The festival centres on family reunion, sweeping out the old year and welcoming luck with red decorations, food with lucky names, fireworks and money in red envelopes. Each part of the fortnight has its own customs.
The Chinese New Year fortnight, step by step
- Days before, Cleaning and decorating: Homes are scrubbed to sweep out bad luck. Red couplets (chunlian) go up on door frames, and the character fu, meaning good fortune, is pasted on doors, often upside down, because "fu upside down" sounds like "fortune arrives".
- Eve, The reunion dinner: The most important meal of the year. A whole fish stands for abundance, dumplings shaped like silver ingots dominate in the north, and sticky rice cake (nian gao) in the south sounds like "higher every year". Families watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and stay up past midnight.
- Midnight, Fireworks: Firecrackers scare off the mythical beast Nian. Many big cities now restrict private fireworks in central districts, while smaller towns and villages still light up the sky.
- Days 1 to 3, Visits and red envelopes: People visit relatives in order of seniority. Married elders give red envelopes (hongbao) of crisp banknotes to children and unmarried younger relatives; today many arrive digitally through WeChat.
- Days 1 to 7, Temple fairs and lion dances: Parks fill with food stalls, folk performances and games. Lion and dragon dancers visit shops and malls to bring luck for the year's business.
- Day 15, Lantern Festival: The first full moon of the year closes the festival. People eat tangyuan, sweet glutinous rice balls, solve riddles written on lanterns and walk through lantern displays at night.
Best places to see Chinese New Year in China and Hong Kong
For visitors, the festival is most rewarding in cities with big public events: temple fairs in Beijing, lanterns in Shanghai, flower markets in Guangzhou and harbour fireworks in Hong Kong.
Beijing: temple fairs at Ditan and Longtan
The temple fair at Ditan Park, the Temple of Earth in Dongcheng District, is one of the largest and best attended in Beijing, and Longtan Park runs another big one. In 2026 both ran for the first week of the festival, from New Year's Day to the seventh day, which is the usual pattern. Expect stalls of skewers and sugar-coated haws, acrobats, opera excerpts and a small ticket fee at the gate. Folk culture and street food are the draw. Go on a weekday morning to avoid the worst crush.
Shanghai: the Yu Garden lantern festival
Weeks either side of the New Year, from late January to early March, lanterns light up the old town around Yu Garden in Shanghai. The 2026 edition, themed on the horse, opened on 26 January and ran to 3 March, and for the first time spread beyond the garden into Fuyou Road and Middle Fangbang Road. It is a night walk and a photographer's festival, and evenings are extremely crowded; arrive just after dusk on a weekday, and note that some zones close on New Year's Eve.
Guangzhou: Spring Festival flower fairs
In Guangzhou, buying flowers before the New Year is a ritual. Each district sets up a free-to-walk flower fair in the days before New Year's Eve, selling peach blossom for romance, kumquat trees for wealth and orchids, and the busiest stay open into the small hours of the Eve itself. In 2026 the Yuexiu district fair ran from 13 February until 2am on 17 February. Walking a flower fair on the last night before the New Year is one of the most local experiences of the whole festival, and a good excuse for a late night.
Hong Kong: fireworks over Victoria Harbour
Hong Kong marks the festival with a free fireworks display over Victoria Harbour, traditionally on the evening of the second day of the New Year. In 2026 it went ahead on 18 February at 8pm. For big-city spectacle it is hard to beat, and the waterfront promenades on both sides fill hours ahead; arrive by late afternoon or book a harbour-view restaurant. The display has been cancelled in some past years, so check the tourism board's announcement before you plan around it.
For a winter combination, the Harbin ice and snow season usually runs from late December to late February, so it overlaps the New Year.
Travelling in China during Chinese New Year
Travelling around the festival means sharing the roads and rails with Chunyun, the world's largest annual migration. Book trains, flights and hotels weeks ahead, and expect higher prices.
Read this before booking travel around the festival: The 2026 travel rush ran for 40 days, from 2 February to 13 March, and authorities forecast a record 9.5 billion inter-regional trips. Train tickets out of big cities in the week before New Year's Eve and back in the week after sell out almost as soon as they go on sale.
Domestic flights and hotels in tourist cities rise sharply in price. In the first three days of the New Year, many small restaurants and shops close while their owners go home, so big cities can feel strangely quiet away from the main sights, while temple fairs and lantern shows are packed.
The smart approach for visitors is to travel on the days around New Year's Eve itself, when everyone else is already home, and to stay put in one city for the busiest return days. Our Chinese New Year travel guide covers events and trips in more detail, and you can line up China tours, hotels and flights early.
Chinese New Year 2027 travel calendar: Chunyun rush dates and closures
Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday 6 February, opening the Year of the Goat, and the Lantern Festival closes the season on Saturday 20 February. The official public holiday and the exact Chunyun dates are announced by the State Council and the transport ministries, usually in the autumn and early winter before, so the windows below follow the pattern of recent years and should be checked against the announcement. Reports so far point to a statutory holiday of about 5 to 11 February 2027.
Chinese New Year 2027: when to travel and when to stay put
| Approximate dates | What happens | What it means for visitors |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-January 2027 | Chunyun begins, normally about 15 days before New Year and running for around 40 days | Rail and air demand climbs; book long-distance trains and flights as soon as sales open |
| From about 21 January | 12306 sells train tickets up to 15 days ahead, so tickets for the peak days go on sale now | Tickets out of big cities for the days before New Year's Eve sell out within minutes |
| Around 1 to 4 February | Peak outbound rush from cities to home towns | Avoid long-distance travel; city hotels are cheap and quiet |
| 5 February (New Year's Eve) to about 8 February | Family reunion dinners, fireworks where allowed; holiday begins | Many small restaurants and shops shut; trains are emptiest on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day |
| 6 to 11 February | Public holiday; temple fairs and lantern shows | Museums and major sights open but crowded; government offices and banks closed |
| About 10 to 15 February | Peak return rush to the cities | Hardest days to get a train ticket; stay in one place |
| 20 February | Lantern Festival | Lantern displays and the last big celebrations |
| Late February to early March | Chunyun ends | Prices and availability return to normal |
The quietest days to move around China in the whole season are New Year's Eve and New Year's Day themselves, while the worst are the last few days before the eve and the end of the official holiday. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan follow their own public holidays, and in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam (Tết) and South Korea (Seollal) the dates of closures differ again, so check each destination separately.
Chinese New Year customs and taboos visitors should know
As a guest, avoid gifts of clocks, white flowers or anything in fours, give and receive with both hands, and skip sweeping or washing hair on New Year's Day.
- Red envelopes. Use new banknotes, avoid amounts with a four, and favour eights. Hand the envelope over with both hands and do not open one in front of the giver.
- Gifts to avoid. Clocks (associated with funerals), white flowers, sharp objects and sets of four. Fruit, tea, sweets and good-quality snacks are safe choices.
- New Year's Day rules. No sweeping, no washing hair and no throwing out rubbish on the first day, since each is thought to wash away the new luck.
- Words and moods. Arguing, crying, breaking things and talking about death are bad omens in the first days. Keep conversation upbeat.
- What to wear. Red and bright colours are welcome. Avoid all-white or all-black outfits, which are linked to mourning, when visiting a family.
- At the table. Leave a little fish uneaten: the phrase "fish every year" sounds like "surplus every year". Never stand chopsticks upright in rice.
Chinese communities far beyond China celebrate too. The same lunar new year is Tet in Vietnam and Seollal in Korea, and Chinese communities from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to London, San Francisco and Sydney hold parades and lion dances, so you can join in far from China.
For the customs of the 1 January New Year in other countries, see our guide to New Year traditions around the world.
Planning a trip to China? Read our China travel guide, compare hotels in China or search flights.
{{item.get_author.first_name}} {{item.get_author.last_name}}
{{item.comment_txt}}
{{item_reply.get_author.first_name}} {{item_reply.get_author.last_name}}
@ {{item_reply.reply_to}}, {{item_reply.reply_txt}}