Lunar New Year

Two kinds of calendar

Every lunar month opens with a new moon. Twelve of them come to about eleven days less than a solar year, the time the earth takes to travel once around the sun. A purely lunar calendar keeps that count and never corrects it, so its new year slides backwards through the seasons. Lunisolar calendars keep twelve months in most years but add a thirteenth, called a leap month, every few years. That holds them in step with the sun. Neither kind of calendar gives a new year that stays on one day of the Gregorian calendar, the civil calendar used in much of the world.

Where the date falls

The rules for fixing the first day differ from calendar to calendar. A purely lunar year restarts at the first new moon counted once twelve months have passed, with the sun left out of the reckoning. Lunisolar calendars tie the restart to the sun. Chinese New Year arrives a couple of new moons after the December solstice, and in years carrying a leap month it comes later still. Korea and Vietnam usually celebrate on the same day, because they work from the Chinese calendar or a close variant, though their customs and the length of the holiday can differ.

What the name means

The festivals are far older than the English words for them. The earliest printed use of "Chinese New Year" in English comes from a 1704 translation of an Italian travel book. "Lunar New Year" appeared within the British Empire: a London and China newspaper used the phrase in 1865 for a Thai festival. British Hong Kong wrote it into law in 1968, replacing "Chinese New Year" on its list of public holidays. The wider name suits calendars that several countries share, and people from Vietnam and South Korea in particular have encouraged its use.

Around the world

East Asian communities mark a lunisolar new year drawn from the Chinese calendar. China calls it the Spring Festival, Korea Seollal, Vietnam Tết. Mongolians keep Tsagaan Sar and Tibetans Losar, and the Ryukyu islands of Japan still follow the lunisolar date while the rest of Japan moved to the solar new year. In South and Southeast Asia, Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, Sri Lankan and Thai celebrations follow the Buddhist calendar and fall in mid-April. Muslim communities keep a lunar new year that moves through the seasons, and Jewish communities keep Rosh Hashanah in autumn.

Recognition and change

Lunar New Year became a United Nations holiday in 2023. The General Assembly decision behind it pointed to the Spring Festival, the new year of the Chinese calendar, which Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea also keep. In the United States, California and New York treat it as a public holiday. Naming is still argued over there: since the mid-2010s Korean and Vietnamese Americans have objected to official use of "Chinese New Year", and in 2019 an online activist group in South Korea pressed foreign websites and broadcasters to change the term.

How Lunar New Year is kept

Households come together, and what they do differs by calendar and country. Before the Chinese New Year, homes are cleaned from top to bottom, a practice that grew out of an older year-end rite meant to drive off illness. Families then share a meal, and in Vietnam they gather to make bánh tét. Muslims greet the Hijri new year with prayer and quiet reflection. Jewish communities hear the shofar blown on Rosh Hashanah, then keep ten days of awe that close with Yom Kippur.

When and where

Each calendar sets its own day, so the date moves in the Gregorian calendar. Chinese-calendar communities keep it in late January or February. Buddhist new years in South and Southeast Asia fall in mid-April. The Hijri new year shifts about eleven days earlier each year and can arrive twice within one Gregorian year. Rosh Hashanah comes in autumn, near the September equinox.

It is kept across East Asia, in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Mongolian and Tibetan communities, and by their diasporas in countries such as Canada and the United States. Buddhist new year celebrations are held in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. Muslim and Jewish new years are observed across the Middle East and wherever those communities live. Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei name Chinese New Year as an official holiday.

What Lunar New Year means

A new year is a threshold, a point for settling accounts with the past and beginning again. Cleaning the house before Chinese New Year is about sweeping misfortune out of the door. Rosh Hashanah is taught as a day of judgment for all humanity, opening ten days of repentance. Tu BiShvat, the new year for trees, gives every tree a birthday and is now kept with an eye on the environment. For Muslims the Hijri new year is a quiet marker of time passing rather than a feast.

Days Lunar New Year is marked

Lunar New Year dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

Questions people ask about Lunar New Year

See also

DiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.VesakA day to honor the birth, awakening, and passing of the Buddha, kept by Buddhists across Asia.Mid-Autumn FestivalAn annual harvest festival celebrating family reunions, full moons and mooncakesGanesh ChaturthiA Hindu festival celebrating the arrival of Ganesha, marked by clay idols, sweets, and public processions.

Good reading and sources

• Nisga'a ring in their new year with Hobiyee celebration in B.C.CBC, Article
• Nisga'a ring in their new year with Hobiyee celebration in B.C.CBC, Article

• Lunar New Year on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.