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Chinese New Year

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Chinese New Year , annual 15-day festival in China and Chinese communities around the world that begins with the new moon that occurs sometime between January 21 and February 20 according to Western calendars . Festivities last until the following full moon .

The holiday is sometimes called the Lunar New Year because the dates of celebration follow the phases of the moon. Since the mid-1990s people in China have been given seven consecutive days off work during the Chinese New Year. This week of relaxation has been designated Spring Festival, a term that is sometimes used to refer to the Chinese New Year in general.

The origins of the Chinese New Year are steeped in legend . One legend is that thousands of years ago a monster named Nian (“Year”) would attack villagers at the beginning of each new year. The monster was afraid of loud noises, bright lights, and the colour red, so those things were used to chase the beast away. Celebrations to usher out the old year and bring forth the luck and prosperity of the new one, therefore, often include firecrackers, fireworks , and red clothes and decorations. Young people are given money in colourful red envelopes. In addition, Chinese New Year is a time to feast and to visit family members. Many traditions of the season honour relatives who have died.

Among other Chinese New Year traditions is the thorough cleaning of one’s home to rid the resident of any lingering bad luck. Some people prepare and enjoy special foods on certain days during the celebrations. The last event held during the Chinese New Year is called the Lantern Festival , during which people hang glowing lanterns in temples or carry them during a nighttime parade . Since the dragon is a Chinese symbol of good fortune, a dragon dance highlights festival celebrations in many areas. This procession involves a long, colourful dragon being carried through the streets by numerous dancers.

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A Brief Guide to the Chinese New Year (春节 Chūnjié)

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Perhaps the most important of all Chinese holidays , the Chinese New Year is celebrated worldwide each January or February in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Mainland China.

Also called the Spring Festival (春节 Chūnjié), the Chinese New Year celebrates the beginning of the Chinese year based on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar and officially ends 14 days later with the Lantern Festival .

Table of Contents

How is Chinese New Year celebrated?

1. steamed fish | 蒸鱼 | zhēng yú, 2. new year cake | 年糕 | niángāo, 3. spring rolls | 春卷 | chūnjuǎn, 4. fruits | 水果 | shuǐguǒ, 5. dumplings | 饺子 | jiǎozi, 6. “longevity noodles” | 长寿面 | chángshòumiàn, 7. tangyuan | 汤圆 | tāngyuán, 1. 新年快乐 (xīnnián kuàilè) - happy new year, 2. 恭喜发财 (gōngxǐfācái) - may you have a prosperous year, 兔年大吉 (tùnián dàjí) - happy year of the rabbit (2023), 4. 岁岁平安 (suìsuì píng'ān) - may you have peace year after year, 5. 万事如意 (wànshìrúyì) - may all your hopes be fulfilled, 1. no cleaning, 2. no wearing black or white, 3. no cutting hair, 4. no breaking things, why is it called the “lunar” new year, chinese zodiac animal signs, the chinese new year through a local's eyes, chinese vocabulary for the spring festival, join a spring festival celebration and practice your chinese.

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Spring Festival is a time for families to come together, exchange money-filled red envelopes (红包, hóngbāo) , and enjoy delicious Chinese food.

The Chinese New Year is a 15-day holiday and includes a variety of festivities depending on the region and its local traditions and customs. However, certain common customs are shared regardless of region.

For example, it is common practice to decorate one’s home with Chinese lanterns . In many homes, you will find auspicious Chinese characters and couplets on red paper stuck on doors. Red is an auspicious color as it scares away the Nian monster . Wearing new clothes is also a common tradition to ward off bad luck—a new year is a time for newness after all!

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The Chinese New Year is an important time to 拜年 (bàinián, to pay a new year call), so it is common practice to visit relatives and exchange auspicious greetings and Chinese gifts , including the ever-popular lucky red envelopes filled with Chinese currency . Devoted Buddhist and Daoist practitioners also often visit local temples to welcome the new year.

The holiday has even had an influence on the traditional festivals of other cultures with whom the Chinese have historically interacted, including the Koreans, Vietnamese, Mongolians, and Japanese.

What foods are eaten during Chinese New Year?

Family is of central importance in traditional Chinese culture, and Spring Festival is generally a very family-oriented holiday.

The New Year’s Eve dining experience (年夜饭 niányèfàn) kick starts the tradition of family reunions. In fact, the Chinese Spring Festival also marks the world’s largest human migration, as overseas Chinese and Chinese migrant laborers return home to celebrate the advent of the new year alongside their families.

Though traditions can vary between northern and southern China, here are a few examples of common “auspicious foods” presented at reunion dinners:

As you may already know, the Chinese language includes many homophones (同音词 tóngyīncí), which results in many characters and words having the same pronunciation as one another.

In this instance, “fish” (鱼 yú) has the same pronunciation as “surplus” (余 yú). There is also a typical New Year greeting, 年年有余 (niánnián yǒuyú), which translates to “may you have a surplus (of blessings) every year”. Therefore, eating fish symbolizes an increase in prosperity.

Sticky rice cakes symbolize a prosperous year to come, as “cake” (糕 gāo) has the same pronunciation as “high/lofty” (高 gāo). This coincides with the greeting 年年高升 (niánniángāoshēng; “advance year after year”). Rice cakes are a must during Chinese New Year festivities!

How can you start spring without spring rolls? This delicacy was originally a seasonal food that was consumed only during the spring. Eating spring rolls is a way to welcome the arrival of spring, and their golden color also symbolizes wealth and prosperity.

Fruits are commonly enjoyed as desserts and snacks during Spring Festival celebrations. They symbolize life and new beginnings and are also a common new year gift.

Due to their resemblance to imperial coins (元宝 yuánbǎo), dumplings are representative of wealth and fortune.

“Longevity noodles” are a kind of flat Cantonese egg noodles which are usually consumed during special occasions (such as the Chinese New Year and birthdays).

As their name indicates, their long strings represent longevity and living to a ripe old age. The trick is to eat them in a single mouthful and not cut the noodles short!

The fifteenth and final day of the new year holiday is celebrated by the Lantern Festival (元宵节 Yuánxiāojié). During this time, it is common to eat a Chinese dessert called tāngyuán (汤圆), which consists of sweet glutinous rice balls filled with a variety of fillings such as sesame, peanut, and red bean paste. Their round shapes represent togetherness and reunion.

How to Say Happy New Year in Chinese

Would you like to wish a friend, colleague, or loved one Happy New Year in Chinese? Read on to learn this festive phrase and more!

Cultural note: In China, people often hold a fist salute or 抱拳礼 (bàoquánlǐ) when saying the below greetings. Remember that this method of greeting is mainly used during formal occasions, so we suggest to avoid using it during informal encounters!

Saying “Xīnnián Kuàilè” is the simplest and most straightforward way to wish your Chinese friends, family and colleagues a happy new year. Want to know how to pronounce it? Just watch the following video and repeat!

In addition to 新年快乐 (Xīnnián Kuàilè), this is probably the most popular saying you'll hear around the Chinese New Year. It has been the center of many 贺年歌曲 (hènián gēqǔ, Chinese New Year songs) and literally means “congratulations, make a fortune!”

Learn to sing along to the famous Chinese New Year song “恭喜” (gōngxǐ) in the following video.

大吉 (dàjí) is a noun meaning very auspicious or lucky. You can put any given year's zodiac animal year before 大吉 and use it as a general new year greeting. You can also simply say 大吉大利 (dàjídàlì), which means “good luck and great prosperity.”

To learn how to say other year-specific Spring Festival greetings, see the Spring Festival Chinese Vocabulary List toward the bottom of this article.

A fun things aspect of Chinese is wordplay based on 同音词 (tóngyīncí, homophones). A great example of this is 岁岁平安. Breaking things during the Chinese new year is a taboo in China as it is believed to bring bad luck resulting in money loss and a family split in the future.

If something does break, you can say “碎碎平安” (suìsuìpíngān) which sounds exactly the same as “岁岁平安” (suìsuìpíngān) . “碎” means to break, whereas “岁” means age or year and is the character used in 岁岁平安. This is a very clever way to negate all that bad luck!

万 literally means “ten thousand” or “a great number.” When you say 万事如意 to your Chinese friends, you are literally wishing that all matters (万事, ten thousand matters/affairs) be according to his/her wishes (如意)。

What are some taboos during Spring Festival?

All auspicious things aside, there are certain taboos that must be avoided during Chinese New Year:

Any type of “spring cleaning” must take place before the new year and never during the actual holiday. This allows the cleaned space to be filled with the new blessings and fortunes of the new year. Cleaning during the holiday consequently means that you are getting rid of these new fortunes!

In Chinese color symbolism, black signifies evil and white is the color of death and used for funerals. Instead, auspicious colors such as red and gold are often worn during the new year.

发 fā (hair) is also the character and sound for 发财 fā cái (to get rich), so cutting hair signifies a loss of fortune.

碎 suì means to break, whereas 岁 suì means age or year. If something does break, you can say “碎碎平安” (suì suì píng ān) which sounds exactly the same as “岁岁平安” (“may you have peace year after year”).

The term “lunar” is an English adaptation, mainly because the holiday starts with the new moon, ends with the full moon 14 days later, and is thus based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar . The name of the holiday in Chinese, 春节 Chūnjié, literally translates to “Spring Festival”.

The Chinese New Year is also a time when the annual zodiac sign changes, meaning that each year is assigned to a specific zodiac animal. Zodiac signs play an integral role in Chinese culture. It is said that your luck regarding financial situations, health and relationships for each year can be calculated based on your zodiac sign.

To ask your Chinese friends and colleagues what their zodiac animal is, just say "你属什么？ (nǐ shǔ shénme?)". 属 shǔ can mean “to belong to” or “to be born in the year of". In China, it is common to be asked how old you are or what your 生肖 (shēngxiào, Chinese zodiac sign) is.

In response, you can say: 我属 (wǒ shǔ) + insert animal. For example: “我属牛” (Wǒ shǔ niú, I was born in the Year of the Ox ). Consult CLI's article on the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals for an in-depth look at this cultural phenomena and to find out what your own zodiac sign is!

In our Spring Festival video, we invite you to peer into the life of a Guilin resident who walked the same arduous path traveled by so many in China from poverty to prosperity. Join Dayong, a CLI team member since 2009, as he converses with Uncle Ye (叶叔叔, Yè Shūshu) about how his quality of life has changed for the better over the decades.

While watching the video, follow along in this downloadable Chinese-English transcript for the Chinese characters, Chinese pinyin , and English translation.

We hope this article helped you learn more about the Chinese New Year! It is truly a fun and festive holiday that is celebrated all across the world. Spring Festival is a time for family reunions, showing appreciation for one’s friends, and delicious feasts.

If you are in China during Spring Festival, we hope you'll get to experience this important holiday for yourself by participating in some Chinese New Year activities with friends or colleagues. Keep in mind that many people will be traveling back and forth during this period as part of the famous Spring Festival travel rush (春运 chūnyùn). If you do plan to go anywhere during this period, especially by train , make sure to buy your tickets far in advance.

If you aren't in China, we encourage you to seek out your local Chinese community, attend holiday events, and even volunteer to help prepare for the Chinese New Year festivities. This is a great way to learn more about Chinese culture and to immerse yourself in the Chinese language .

And now that you know some Chinese New Year greetings, it is time to put them to use! On behalf of the CLI team, we wish you a wonderful Chinese New Year and welcome you to learn Chinese in China . 祝大新年快乐，身体健康，万事如意 ！

Tania holds a BA in Arabic and Chinese from the University of Leeds, which led her to spend two years studying in Taiwan and Egypt as part of her degree. Her interests include Chinese traditional theater, international education, and programming. Tania travels to China annually and is fluent in Chinese.

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Chinese New Year – Few lines, Short Essay and Full Essay

• January 25, 2020
• Essays , Festivals

Few lines about Chinese New Year

• Chinese new year is also known as Lunar new year
• It is a Chinese festival celebrating the beginning of a new year of the Chinese calendar.
• In mainland china, the day marks the onset of spring and is referred as the Spring Festival.
• In 2020, the Chinese New Year is celebrated on 25th January and it’s a public holiday.
• This Chinese year is called the Year of the Rat.

Brief essay on Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a well-known Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year of the Chinese calendar. It is also known as lunar New Year or the Spring Festival as it marks the onset of spring. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon day that happens between 21 January and 20 February. In 2020 the Chinese New Year is celebrated on 25th January commencing the Year of the Rat. Chinese New Year is an important holiday in China and the festival is also celebrated worldwide in regions with significant Chinese populations.

Long Essay on Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year marks the beginning of a new year in the Chinese calendar. It is also termed as “Lunar New Year”, “Chinese New Year Festival”, and “Spring Festival”. Generally, the Chinese New Year falls on different dates every year in the Gregorian calendar. It is calculated based on the first new moon day that falls between 21th of January and 20th of February.

Chinese New Year celebrations starting from the New Year eve and ends with the Lantern festival that is held on the 15th day of the year. Chinese New Year is observed as a public holiday in china and in several countries with sizable Chinese and Korean population. It is the longest holidays in china. The holidays mark the end of the winter’s coldest days and people welcome the spring, praying to Gods for the upcoming planting and harvest season.

Different regional customs and traditions accompany the festival. Eating dumplings, Yule Log cake, tang yuan or ‘soup balls’, and red envelopes with ‘lucky’ money are part of customary celebration. According to some Myth, the Chinese New Year festival celebrates the death of a monster called Nian, which was killed by a brave boy with fire crackers on the New Year’s Eve. And that’s why firecrackers is considered the crucial part of the Spring Festival as it is believed to scare off monsters and bad luck.

This year, 2020, Chinese New Year falls on 25th of January is called the year of the Rat.

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Chinese New Year Traditions

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 19, 2021 | Original: October 23, 2009

Chinese New Year celebrations were born out of fear and myth. Legend spoke of the wild beast Nian (which also is the word for “year”) that appeared at the end of each year, attacking and killing villagers. Loud noises and bright lights were used to scare the beast away, and the Chinese New Year celebrations were born. Today, the 15-day New Year festivities are celebrated with a week of vacation in metropolitan areas of China. Much like the Western New Year (January 1st), the biggest celebration is on the eve of the holiday. At the turn of the new year, firework displays are put on throughout the city.

Aside from New Year’s Eve, there are other important days of the 15-day Chinese New Year Festival, including:

JIE CAI CENG: Welcoming the Gods of Wealth and Prosperity On the fifth day of New Year’s, it is believed that the gods of prosperity come down from the heavens. Businesses will often participate in setting off firecrackers as they believe it will bring them prosperity and good fortune for their business.

YUAN XIAO JIE: Festival of Lanterns The 15th day of the New Year is known as the Festival of Lanterns and marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. All types of lanterns are lit throughout the streets and often poems and riddles are often written for entertainment.

There are also paper lanterns on wheels created in the form of either a rabbit or the animal of the year (Dog for 2018). The rabbit lantern stems from a Chinese myth or fairytale about a female goddess named Chang E who jumped onto the moon.

So she wouldn’t travel alone, she brought a rabbit with her to keep her company. It is said that if your heart is pure enough, you can see the goddess Chang E and her rabbit on the moon on this day.

Red envelopes Called “hong bao” in Mandarin, the red envelopes filled with money are typically only given to children or unmarried adults with no job. If you’re single and working and making money, you still have to give the younger ones the hong bao money.

The color red denotes good luck/fortune and happiness/abundance in the Chinese Culture and is often worn or used for decoration in other celebrations.

Dragon The dragon is present in many Chinese cultural celebrations as the Chinese people often think of themselves as descendants of the mythical creature. On the fifth day of the New Year when many people have to start going back to work, they will also have dancing dragons perform in the front of the office building.

On the 15th day of the New Year (Yuan Xiao Jie), they may also have a lot of dancing dragon performances. The dragon represents prosperity, good luck and good fortune.

Traditional Foods

The Chinese New Year’s Eve meal is the most important dinner of the year. Typically, families gather at a designated relative’s house for dinner, but these days, many families often celebrate New Year’s Eve dinner at a restaurant. Many restaurants require reservations months in advance.

There are also some families that hire a professional chef to come cook at their house. Chefs are often busy running from one home to another cooking dinners for different families on New Year’s Eve.

Chinese New Year is a 15-day celebration and each day, many families rotate celebrations between homes of their relatives. The festivities are day-long and sometimes, a family ends up cooking two meals for their relatives, once at lunch and once at dinner.

These dishes used to be all made from scratch, but now people can easily buy them prepackaged at the supermarkets.

• Eight Treasures Rice, which contains rice, walnuts, different colored dry fruit, raisins, sweet red bean paste, jujube dates, and almonds
• “Tang Yuan” – black sesame rice ball soup; or a won ton soup
• Chicken, duck, fish and pork dishes
• “Song Gao,” literally translates to “loose cake,” which is made of rice which has been coarsely ground and then formed into a small, sweet round cake
• “Jiu Niang Tang” – sweet wine-rice soup which contains small rice balls

READ MORE: Chinese New Year History

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The History of Chinese New Year

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The most important holiday in Chinese culture around the world is undoubtedly Chinese New Year, and it all started out of fear.

The centuries-old legend of the origins of the Chinese New Year celebration varies from teller to teller, but every telling includes a story of a terrible mythical monster preying on villagers. The lion-like monster’s name was Nian (年), which is also the Chinese word for “year."

The stories include a wise old man who counsels the villagers to ward off the evil Nian by making loud noises with drums and firecrackers and by hanging red paper cutouts and scrolls on their doors, because Nian is scared of the color red.

The villagers took the old man’s advice and Nian was conquered. On the anniversary of the date, the Chinese recognize the “passing of the Nian,” known in Chinese as guo nian (过年), which is synonymous with celebrating the new year.

Lunar Calendar

The date of Chinese New Year changes each year because it's based on the lunar calendar. While the western Gregorian calendar is based on the Earth’s orbit around the sun, the date of Chinese New Year is determined according to the moon’s orbit around the Earth. Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Other Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam also celebrate the new year using the lunar calendar.

While Buddhism and Daoism have unique customs during the New Year, Chinese New Year is far older than both religions. As with many agrarian societies, Chinese New Year is rooted in a celebration of spring, like Easter or Passover.

Depending on where it's grown, the rice season in China lasts roughly from May to September (north China), April to October (Yangtze River Valley), or March to November (Southeast China). The New Year was likely the start of preparations for a new growing season.

Spring cleaning is a common theme during this time. Many Chinese families clean out their homes during the holiday. The New Year celebration could also have been a way to break up the boredom of the long winter months.

Traditional Customs

On Chinese New Year, families travel long distances to meet and make merry. Known as the "Spring movement" or Chunyun (春运), a great migration takes place in China during this period as many travelers brave crowds to get to their hometowns.

Though the holiday is actually just a week long, traditionally it's celebrated as a 15-day holiday when firecrackers are lit, drums are heard on the streets, red lanterns glow at night, and red paper cutouts and calligraphy hang on doors. Children are also given  red envelopes  containing money. Many cities around the world hold New Year parades complete with dragon and lion dances. Celebrations conclude on the 15th day with the Lantern Festival .

Food is an important component of the New Year. Traditional foods to eat include nian gao  (sweet sticky rice cake) and savory dumplings. 

Chinese New Year vs. Spring Festival

In China, New Year celebrations are synonymous with Spring Festival (春节 or chūn jié), which is typically a week-long celebration. The origins of this renaming from "Chinese New Year" to “Spring Festival” are fascinating and not widely known.

In 1912 the newly formed Chinese Republic, governed by the Nationalist Party, renamed the traditional holiday "Spring Festival" to get the Chinese people to transition into celebrating the Western New Year. During this period, many Chinese intellectuals felt that modernization meant doing all things as the West did.

When the Communists took over power in 1949, the celebration of New Year was viewed as feudalistic and steeped in religion, not proper for an atheist China. Under the Chinese Communist Party , Chinese New Year wasn't celebrated some years.

By the late 1980s, however, as China began liberalizing its economy, Spring Festival celebrations became big business. Since 1982, China Central Television has held an annual New Year’s Gala which is televised across the country and via satellite to the world.

Over the years, the government has made several changes to its holiday system. The May Day holiday was increased and then shortened to one day, and the National Day holiday was made three days instead of two. More traditional holidays, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day, are emphasized. The only week-long holiday that was maintained is Spring Festival. 

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Chinese New Year — How The Chinese New Year Began

How The Chinese New Year Began

• Categories: Chinese New Year New Year

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Published: Nov 22, 2018

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Celebrating Chinese New Year: traditions, symbolism, and evolution

Chinese people around the world are once again celebrating their most important holiday of the year: Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, which falls on February 10 this year. 2024 will be the Year of the Dragon, which in Chinese culture symbolizes power, nobility, and intelligence. So what does the Spring Festival mean to China? How have Spring Festival traditions evolved in the era of social media? And what is the cultural symbolism and meaning of the dragon? 

Guests in this episode are Flora Liu, founder of Joyview Education; Zoon Ahmed Khan, research fellow with Center for China and Globalization; David A. Janke, founder and CEO of Hainan Idiom Language Services Co., Ltd.; And Mike Yang, director of Modun Group.

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Chinese New Year

The last event of the 15-day celebration is the Lantern Festival. People often hang glowing lanterns in temples or carry them during a nighttime parade. The dragon dance highlights festival celebrations in many areas. A long, colorful dragon is carried through streets by numerous dancers.

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Chinese New Year 2024

• Dates & Calendar
• How do Chinese People Celebrate CNY
• Greetings in Chinese
• New Year Food
• How to Decorate for CNY
• 10 Facts You Should Know
• Top 10 Activities
• 10 Traditions You Don’t Know
• Day-by-Day Schedule
• Red Envelope
• Spring Festival Couplets
• 16 Things You Should Never Do during CNY
• Spring Festival Rush
• Greeting Cards
• 2021 / 2022 / 2023 Public Holiday Calendar
• National Holidays
• Traditional Festivals
• Tourism Festivals
• Ethnic Minority Festivals

China's Grandest Festival & Longest Public Holiday

2024 Chinese New Year date: Feb. 10th, Saturday, Year of the Dragon

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the grandest festival in China, usually with a 7-8 days' holiday. As the most colorful annual event, the traditional CNY celebration lasts longer, up to two weeks, and the climax arrives around the Lunar New Year's Eve. China during this period is dominated by iconic red lanterns, loud fireworks, massive banquets and parades, and the festival even triggers exuberant celebrations across the globe.  

2024 – The Year of the Dragon

Time for family reunion.

When is Chinese New Year?

Why is it called Spring Festival?

How do chinese people celebrate the festival – customs & activities, house cleaning and decorating – half month before.

Family Reunion Dinner – New Year's Eve

Giving Red Envelopes – Best Wishes through Money

Send Greetings and Red Envelopes through Wechat

Watching CCTV New Year's Gala – 20:00 to 00:30

Setting off Firecrackers at 00:00

Half-month Visiting Relatives – from One Family to Another

Folk Shows and Temple Fairs – Lasting to 15th day of 1st lunar month

What to Eat – Priority of the Festival

New year menu from a chinese family.

Glutinous Rice Balls

Spring Rolls

Travel during Chinese New Year – 5 Things You should Know

– Southern areas like Guangdong, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Yunnan: 5 ~ 15°C; sweater + jacket or trench coat

– South and east areas including Shanghai & Hangzhou: 2 ~ 10°C; sweater + light down jacket

– Central China including Xi’an & Chengdu: -3 ~ 8 °C; sweater + thick down jacket

– North destinations around Beijing: -10 ~ 5°C; wool sweater + thick parka or down coat

– Northeast cities like Harbin: -30 ~ -10°C; as thick as possible

How to Say Happy New Year in Chinese

• 新年好 xīn nián hǎo
• 过年好 guò nián hǎo
• 新年快乐 xīn nián kuài lè

Further Reading:

3800 years' history of chinese new year, chinese new year animals – 12 zodiac signs, you may like.

Chinese New Year Celebrations and Activities (2025): Day-by-Day Guide

You may wonder how long does Chinese New Year last? Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) is celebrated for sixteen days (from Chinese New Year's Eve to Chinese Lantern Festival). The preparations start half a month before Chinese New Year's Eve. Many celebration activities for this period are traditional customs, but some are quite new...

Chinese New Year 2025 falls on January 29th, 2025 . Here is a daily guide to tell you how Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year in 2025.

Pre-Chinese New Year Preparations and Activities (Jan. 7–Feb. 12, 2025)

Jan. 7, 2025: laba festival.

Some Chinese start to celebrate and prepare for Chinese New Year as early as day 8 of the 12 th month of the lunar calendar. This is a festival called Laba ( 腊八 Làbā /laa-baa/ '12th lunar month' + '8'), in the traditional sense, which marks the beginning of the Spring Festival. This year, it corresponds to January 18.

The main activity on this day is to pray to ancestors and gods (such as door gods) for fortune and a successful harvest. The main food include the Laba porridge (腊八粥 / Làbā zhōu), Laba tofu (腊八豆腐 / àbā dòufu), and noodles (腊八面 / Làbā miàn).

Jan. 22 or 23, 2025: Little Year

The Little Year (小年 / xiǎo nián) marks the beginning to do preparation for Lunar New Year. From this day, people begin to prepare goods, clean house, pray to the stove god, etc. It expresses people's good wishes to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the New Year. Due to different customs around the year, the dates of the Little Year are not the same. It is the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in northern China and the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month in most parts of southern China.

Jan. 23, 2025: House-Cleaning

Beginning on the 24th day of the 12th lunar month Chinese people carry out a thorough 'winter-cleaning' of their houses.

This is called "sweeping away the dust", and represents a wish to put away old things, bid farewell to the old year, and welcome in the Lunar New Year.

Jan. 22–28, 2025: New Year Shopping

Before Chinese New Year's Eve, people buy New Year's food and snacks, New Year's decorations, and New Year's clothes, fireworks, etc. Chinese New Year in China, like Christmas, is a boom time for shopping.

Chinese people may be thrifty most of the time, but they seem to spend generously during their traditional festivals. For example, they buy everyone new year clothes , whether they need them or not. On the days leading up to the festival, there are many New Year's street markets.

Chinese New Year's Eve (Jan. 28, 2025): 6 Traditions and Activities

1. putting up new year decorations.

Although some people decorate their houses several days before the festival, most people do it on Chinese New Year's Eve . Houses are decorated with red lanterns, red spring couplets , paper cuttings , and New Year's paintings.

Putting up those decorations is thought to keep evil away and pray for blessing, longevity, health, and peace. 2025 is a Year of the Snake , so rabbit images will appear on decorations. Read more about the Top 7 Chinese New Year Decorations .

2. Offering Sacrifices to Ancestors

Offering sacrifices to ancestors shows respect and piety. In addition, ancestral spirits are believed to protect their descendants and help them become prosperous.

Many worship on Chinese New Year's Eve, before the reunion dinner, to show that they are letting their ancestors "eat" first. Offerings of meat, wine, joss sticks, and joss paper are placed in front of the shrine/grave.

3. Enjoying a Reunion Dinner

The Lunar New Year's Eve reunion dinner is a "must-do" dinner with all family members reuniting. Chinese try very hard to make this family event, often traveling long distances. This is the main reason for the huge travel stress throughout China.

Big families including several generations sit at round tables and enjoy the food and time together.

Dishes with lucky meanings must be included in the dinner such as fish, dumplings, Nian Gao (sticky rice cake), and spring rolls. Many Lunar New Year foods are symbolic .

4. Watching CCTV's New Year Gala

It's become customary for many families to watch the CCTV New Year Gala while having their dinner. The Gala starts at 8 pm and ends when the Chinese New Year arrives at midnight.

It features traditional, folk, and pop performances from China's best singers, dancers, and acrobats.

5. Giving Red Envelopes (Lucky Money) to Kids

Parents usually give their children red envelopes after the reunion dinner, wishing them health, growth, and good studies in the coming year.

Money in red envelopes is believed to bring good luck, as red is China's lucky color, so it's called lucky money.

6. Staying Up Late

This custom is called shousui (守岁/show-sway/'to keep watch over the year'). In the past, Chinese people used to stay up all night, but now most stay up only until midnight firecrackers and fireworks die down.

Chinese New Year's Day (Jan. 29, 2025)

Chinese people believe that what they do on the first day of the lunar year will affect their luck during that year.

1. Setting Off Firecrackers and Fireworks

The moment Lunar New Year arrives there is a cacophony of fireworks and firecrackers all around, even in rural China. Families stay up for this joyful moment.

In many rural areas, it's customary to set off firecrackers before dinner, each day from New Year's Eve to day 3 of CNY. See Why Chinese New Year Must Have Firecrackers .

It's believed that the louder the firecrackers, the better and luckier it will be for business and farming in the coming year.

Kids, with (mini) firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in another, cheerfully celebrate by throwing the small explosives one-by-one on the street whilst plugging their ears.

2. Putting on New Clothes and Extending New Year Greetings

On the first day of Lunar New Year, Chinese people put on new clothes, and say "gongxi" (恭喜/gong-sshee/literally 'respectful joy', meaning 'greetings' or 'best wishes'), wishing each other good luck and happiness in the New Year.

It is customary for the younger generation to visit their elders, and wish them health and longevity. See The Popular Chinese New Year Greetings and Wishes .

In recent years, a new way to do New Year greetings has appeared, especially among the young. People who are too busy to visit their friends or relatives send a New Year's card, a WeChat red envelope, or a text message instead.

3. Watching Lion and Dragon Dances

Lion dances and dragon dances are also seen on Lunar New Year's Day. Once very popular in China, they are reappearing in many places. They are more popular in Hong Kong and Macau.

4. Public Celebrations at Parks and Temple Fairs

Beijing's temple fairs are the places to go for traditional activities in Beijing. Such activities are held in parks from the first day of the lunar year to the last (when celebrating the Lantern Festival).

Generally, parks and temples are the best places to go for festive celebrations at the Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year: Day 2 (Jan. 30, 2025)

Traditionally married daughters visit their parents' home on the second day of Chinese New Year. They bring gifts and red envelopes to families and relatives.

On this day, people offer sacrifices to the God of Wealth, wishing for a luckier and more prosperous year.

Chinese New Year: Days 3–7 (Jan. 31–Feb. 4, 2025)

From the third to the seventh day of New Year, Chinese people visit relatives and friends.

On the third day, some people go to visit the tombs of their relatives, but others think being outside there on the third day is inauspicious because evil spirits roam around.

The first house-sweep of the New Year: Chinese people don't clean their homes during the first two days of New Year, as sweeping then is believed to sweep away the good luck accrued by the litter of firecrackers, red paper, wrappers, and other evidence of celebration on the floor.

Chinese New Year: Day 8 (Feb. 5, 2025)

People normally return to work on the eighth day. As eight is the luckiest number in China, most businesses like to reopen on day 8 of the New Year.

New Year: Day 15 (Feb. 12, 2025), the Chinese Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the New Year is the Chinese Lantern Festival (元宵节 Yuánxiāo Jié /ywen-sshyaou jyeah/). It is the traditional end of Spring Festival celebrations.

Some people send glowing lanterns into the sky, while others release floating lanterns onto the sea, onto rivers, or adrift in lakes.

Regional Variations in Chinese New Year Celebrations in China

Traditions and celebrations vary greatly across China. In the north, Chinese dumplings are the must-eat food on Chinese New Year's Eve, but south of the Yangtze River most people eat spring rolls or sticky rice cake. For more on this, read How Chinese New Year Is Celebrated in Northern and Southern China .

Chinese New Year Celebrations around the World

Chinese New Year is not only celebrated in China, but also in several other East Asian countries (among non-Chinese Asians it's known as 'Spring Festival') as well as Chinatowns in Western countries.

For the numbers of people celebrating around the world see Chinese New Year Facts .

You can experience Chinese New Year celebrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, etc. You can walk through their Chinatowns and see the restaurants and shopfronts adorned in red and gold, and experience firecrackers, colorful parades, and dragon dances.

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Photo Essay: My Favorite Chinese New Year Moments

While this is the first year in many that we won’t be spending Chinese New Year with family, I still have fond memories experiencing China’s most important holiday – and I’d like to share some of those highlights through my favorite photos from Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Traditions

Red couplets, known as duilian in Chinese, are one of the most vibrant decorations for Chinese New Year. Here, I stand by the door of the family home adorned with red couplets just written by my father-in-law, a yearly tradition for him.

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, the family always visits ancestors’ graves — offering them dinner, incense and money for the afterlife.

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, my husband and his brother pay respects to a camphor tree that watches over the family.

The ancestors’ dinner table is always set first, complete with candles and wine, on Chinese New Year’s Eve. We will then pray to them and pay our respects.

Jun sets the firecrackers and fireworks at the gate to the family home on Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Before the ancestors table, we burn paper money to send to them in the afterlife.

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, the whole family gathers before the door to pray to the ancestors.

Here I’m carrying two festive gift boxes filled with Chinese New Year goods, also known as nianhuo . It’s customary to give gifts for the holiday.

Giving out red envelopes, known as hongbao , is also a family tradition Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Hanging red lanterns at the family home is an annual tradition to ring in the new lunar year.

The family watches the firecrackers and fireworks exploding at midnight, welcoming the new lunar year.

Jun and I greet the new lunar year dressed head to toe in our new clothing.

Chinese New Year Food

The Laba Festival (which was January 24 this year) falls on the eighth day of the final month of the lunar year and is considered the official start to the Chinese New Year season. Every year, my mother-in-law commemorates the day by dishing up the traditional laba porridge (腊八粥) for breakfast .

At my in-laws’ home, no Chinese New Year is complete without a heaping bag of dongmitang (冻米糖) sitting in the corner of our bedroom , ready for snacking at a moment’s notice. These crispy Chinese New Year treats are made from puffed rice mixed with rice syrup.

Every Chinese New Year, we always prepare savory rice turnovers known as migu in the local dialect . They’re stuffed with either veggies (salted bamboo, pickled greens and tofu) or veggies and pork.

You haven’t had tofu until you’ve tried tofu made from scratch. Here my mother-in-law is in the process of preparing homemade tofu .

Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner is the most sumptuous meal of the year, with so many dishes on the table there’s barely enough room for them.

Family at Chinese New Year

Bainian , or Chinese New Year calls, is one of the most important traditions for family, where relatives visit one another at home to send wishes for a prosperous new year. This is one of my favorite bainian memories — Jun’s grandma and grandpa, who have since passed away, happened to visit us at our home in 2014.

Jun’s grandma was actually one of my favorite people to see during the holidays. Here, she and I spend time in front of the family home.

Toasting family at the table is an important ritual during Chinese New Year. Here, I’m attending the first dinner of the year at an aunt’s home — she never fails to make a scrumptious tofu dish and some of the best kimchi I’ve ever tasted.

During Chinese New Year, we also travel to other relatives’ homes to dine and socialize. Here I sit with family before an aunt and uncle’s home, where we are having lunch.

I especially love when family come together to prepare food. Here relatives sit around the table making those savory turnovers.

But most of all, it’s a pleasure to spend Chinese New Year’s Eve together with family at the dinner table.

Wherever you are in the world, here’s wishing you an auspicious Year of the Dog filled with great fortune and blessings.

4 Replies to “Photo Essay: My Favorite Chinese New Year Moments”

Dear Jocelyn, Thank you for continuing this column. I love seeing scenes of family life in China-they make me so comforted and happy to see how people live and appreciate each other.

BTW- engineers in my continuing ed class in Xi’an asked if Western women were attracted to Chinese men. I laughed and said of course many of us are. The REAL question for them is ARE YOU attracted to us?!

Hi Meghan, thank you for the comment and for reading! Cute about the engineers in your class — and true, it’s a good question to them!

I love these photos! They make me miss China a lot. I like to see your husband’s family still carrying on such strong Chinese traditions (I was really touched by the camphor tree photo… speaks volumes about how much we value our home and family).

Happy year of the dog to you 🙂 I guess you’re spending it in Beijing? In America it feels like any other day. I don’t miss the holiday crowds of Chinese New Year, but I miss the atmosphere.

Hey Mary, thank you so much for the comment and glad you enjoyed the photos! Yes, it is nice his family still continues these traditions — though sadly, that camphor tree was bulldozed away. 🙁

Happy Year of the Dog to you too! Indeed you do miss the atmosphere when you’re not in China — but the crowds are something you’ll never miss!

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