Chinese New Year traditions center on family and on starting the year fresh. Homes are cleaned and decorated in red, families gather for a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve and stay up past midnight, children receive red envelopes, and the following days are spent visiting relatives. Lion and dragon dances fill the streets, and the Lantern Festival closes the season on the 15th day.
In 2027 the reunion dinner is on February 5, New Year's Day is February 6 and the Lantern Festival is February 20. Customs differ widely between regions and from one family to the next, so read what follows as the common pattern, not a checklist.
How do families get ready?
Preparation is half the holiday. In the last days of the old year, families:
- Clean the house thoroughly. The cleaning signifies removing the old and welcoming the new. It is finished before New Year's Day, because sweeping on the day itself is traditionally avoided.
- Send off the Kitchen God. In the traditional calendar, about a week before the new year, the household god who watches over the stove leaves to report on the family. Sweet offerings were made so that he would say only good things.
- Settle up. By old custom, debts were paid before the year ended so that the new one could start with a clean slate.
- Shop and decorate. New Year markets sell flowers, lanterns, decorations and food. Red couplets go up by the door. The meanings are in our guide to Chinese New Year decorations.
What happens on New Year's Eve?
The evening is built around the reunion dinner, the most important meal of the year. Family members who live far away travel home for it, and most families eat at home. The dishes are chosen for their lucky meanings; see Chinese New Year food.
After dinner comes shousui, "keeping watch over the year." Families traditionally stayed awake all night; today many stay up until midnight. Children receive red envelopes with New Year's money, by custom after paying their respects to the oldest members of the family first.
At midnight, where it is permitted, fireworks and firecrackers go off. In the legend told to explain it, a beast called Nian came out on New Year's Eve to prey on villages, until people found that it feared loud noise, fire and the color red.
What do people do on New Year's Day?
The first day is for new clothes, good wishes and elders. People dress in new clothes and greet parents, grandparents, relatives and neighbors, traditionally in order of seniority. Offerings are made to ancestors. Certain everyday chores are set aside for the day; the reasons are in Chinese New Year superstitions.
The greeting you hear everywhere is xin nian kuai le, "happy new year." More phrases, with pronunciation, are in Chinese New Year greetings.
What happens on the days that follow?
| Day | Date in 2027 | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Day 2 | February 7 | Married daughters visit their own parents |
| Day 5 | February 10 | Po wu, "break five." Dumplings are eaten; shops and markets reopen |
| Day 7 | February 12 | Renri, "day of humankind," by legend the day people were created |
| Day 9 | February 14 | Birthday of the Jade Emperor in Taoist tradition |
| Day 15 | February 20 | Lantern Festival |
Not every family keeps every day, and many people are back at work within a week. The visiting continues throughout: relatives first, then friends, with fruit and sweets brought as gifts. What to bring is covered in Chinese New Year gifts.
What are lion dances and dragon dances?
They are the street performances most people associate with the holiday, and they are easy to tell apart.
| Lion dance | Dragon dance | |
|---|---|---|
| Performers | Two dancers inside one costume | A troupe carrying a long dragon |
| Music | Drums and cymbals | Drums and cymbals |
| Where | Streets, shops, parades | Streets and parades |
Both are performed throughout the new year period and are said to bring good luck. During a lion dance, shopkeepers and spectators "feed" the lion a red envelope, a donation to the troupe that is believed to bring luck to the giver.
How does the Lantern Festival end the holiday?
On the 15th day, the first full-moon night of the year, families hang and carry lanterns, guess riddles written on slips of paper attached to them and eat round sweet rice dumplings called yuanxiao or tangyuan. With that, the new year season is over.
How old are these traditions?
Very old, and still changing. The Lam Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University traces the outline this way: year-end offerings to gods and ancestors go back some three thousand years; the date was fixed on the first day of the first lunar month in the Han dynasty, about two thousand years ago; cleaning the house, dining together and staying up late followed a few centuries later; firecrackers, visiting, dumplings, lion and dragon dances and lantern shows were added over the next thousand years.
Newer habits include a televised new year gala watched by families across China and red envelopes sent by phone. In 2024 UNESCO added the Spring Festival to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
How is it celebrated in the US and the UK?
Families keep the reunion dinner, the red envelopes and the visits, often moved to the nearest weekend. Chinatowns hold parades with lion and dragon dances. In London, the celebrations organized by the London Chinatown Chinese Association bring a parade, stage performances in Trafalgar Square and events across Chinatown, free to attend. In 2027 the new year falls on a Saturday, which makes joining in easier than usual. Check local listings in January for confirmed dates.
For the full calendar, see Chinese New Year 2027.