When Is Chinese New Year?
Find out when Chinese New Year is this year. See the zodiac animal, live countdown, and dates for the next 10 years.
Next occurrence of Chinese New Year
Saturday, 6 March 2027
Chinese New Year in 2026: Tuesday, 17 February 2026
What is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is the most important celebration in Chinese culture. It marks the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunar calendar. Families gather to celebrate with special meals, fireworks, and decorations featuring red and gold colours symbolising good luck and prosperity. The festival is celebrated by over 1.5 billion people worldwide and is a public holiday across much of Asia.
Traditions
- •Family reunion dinners with special foods symbolising good fortune
- •Exchanging red envelopes (hong bao) containing money
- •Cleaning homes to sweep away bad luck
- •Decorating with red lanterns, couplets, and gold ornaments
- •Setting off fireworks and firecrackers
- •Wearing red clothing for good luck
- •Lion and dragon dances in streets and parades
- •Visiting temples to pray for blessings
Fun Facts
- ✨Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, so the date changes each year
- ✨Each year is associated with one of twelve zodiac animals
- ✨The celebrations typically last 15 days
- ✨Red envelopes are given to bring good fortune and ward off evil
- ✨Fireworks were originally used to scare away evil spirits
When is Chinese New Year each year?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 17 February 2026 | Tuesday |
| 2027 | 6 March 2027 | Saturday |
| 2028 | 26 January 2028 | Wednesday |
| 2029 | 13 February 2029 | Tuesday |
| 2030 | 3 March 2030 | Sunday |
| 2031 | 23 January 2031 | Thursday |
| 2032 | 11 February 2032 | Wednesday |
| 2033 | 1 February 2033 | Tuesday |
| 2034 | 20 January 2034 | Friday |
| 2035 | 29 January 2035 | Monday |
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When Chinese New Year Falls
Chinese New Year 2026 is Tuesday 17 February, which begins the Year of the Horse (Bing Wu in the sexagenary cycle). Chinese New Year 2027 is Saturday 6 March, the Year of the Sheep (or Goat - both translations are used). The date moves dramatically year to year because Chinese New Year follows the lunisolar calendar: the first day of the new lunar month closest to lichun (the start of spring), so it always falls between 21 January and 20 February. Chinese New Year 2028 returns to 26 January as a Year of the Monkey.
The 12 zodiac animals cycle in a fixed order (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, pig). Each is paired with one of five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) on a 60-year cycle, so a full Year of the Horse repeats only once every 60 years. People born in 2026 are Fire Horses, said in tradition to be passionate, energetic and slightly headstrong. The countdown on this page automatically rolls forward; once 17 February 2026 passes, it shifts to 6 March 2027 without manual updates.
How Chinese New Year Is Celebrated
Celebrations span 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival. The Spring Festival itself centres on the Reunion Dinner on New Year's Eve - extended families gather, often travelling huge distances; the annual chunyun migration in mainland China is the largest annual human migration in the world, with three billion individual journeys taken in the 40-day window. Traditional dishes carry symbolic meaning: fish (yu) sounds like 'surplus' so eating it brings abundance, dumplings (jiaozi) shaped like ancient gold ingots bring wealth, niangao (sticky rice cake) means 'higher year' meaning growth.
Outside mainland China, major celebrations happen in London (Trafalgar Square parade and Soho fireworks), Manchester (Chinatown lion dance), San Francisco, Sydney and Singapore. Red is everywhere - red lanterns, red couplets on doors, red envelopes (hongbao or lai see) of cash given to children and unmarried adults from married relatives. The colour is believed to scare away the mythical beast Nian, which is also where the word for new year (xinnian) comes from. The [When Is Diwali](/when-is-diwali) tool covers the other major lunar-calendar festival; the [When Is Easter](/when-is-easter) tool covers the Christian moveable feast that uses similar lunar logic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What date is Chinese New Year 2026?
Tuesday 17 February 2026, the Year of the Horse. The 15-day celebration runs to the Lantern Festival on Tuesday 3 March 2026. UK celebrations cluster on the closest weekend, so the main London Chinatown parade typically falls on Sunday 22 February 2026.
What zodiac animal is 2026?
2026 is the Year of the Horse, more specifically the Fire Horse year (Bing Wu in the Chinese sexagenary cycle). People born during 17 February 2026 to 5 February 2027 are Fire Horses. The previous Fire Horse year was 1966, and the next will be 2086. The full element-animal pairing repeats every 60 years.
Why does the Chinese New Year date change?
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, meaning months follow the moon's cycles (around 29.5 days each) but the year stays roughly aligned with the sun by adding a 13th leap month every two or three years. Chinese New Year is the first new moon between 21 January and 20 February, so the date shifts each year within that window.
How many people celebrate Chinese New Year?
More than 1.5 billion people worldwide. Mainland China gives a 7-day public holiday; Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam (Tet), Philippines, Brunei, Mauritius and others all observe it as a public holiday. The UK Chinese diaspora of around 400,000 people drives major weekend celebrations in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.
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