Codex of FaithsAn illustrated atlas of belief

Daoism · Confucianism · Buddhism

Lunar New Year

When is Lunar New Year in 2027, the Spring Festival of China and East Asia: its family reunions, red decorations, offerings to ancestors and gods, and the animal of the year.

Next date

Saturday, 6 February 2027

Year of the Goat (Sheep).

In brief

  1. I.Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, is the most important holiday in China and is also kept in Korea, Vietnam and across East and Southeast Asia.
  2. II.It brings families together for a reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve.
  3. III.Ancestors are honoured, and gods such as the Kitchen God are sent off and welcomed.
  4. IV.Red decorations, firecrackers and lanterns drive away misfortune.

Chapter I

What it celebrates

The festival marks the end of winter and the start of a new year in the lunisolar calendar. Folk tales tell of a beast called Nian, “year”, who attacked villages until people discovered it feared the colour red, noise and light.

Religiously, it gathers Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist customs: honouring ancestors, sending off the Kitchen God to report on the family in heaven, and welcoming the gods of wealth and good fortune.

Chapter II

How it is kept

Homes are cleaned before the new year to sweep away bad luck, and red couplets with good wishes are pasted on doors. On New Year’s Eve the family gathers for a reunion dinner, with dishes whose names sound like wishes: fish for abundance, dumplings shaped like ancient money. At midnight firecrackers greet the new year. Visits to family and temples follow over the next fifteen days, ending with the Lantern Festival.

Chapter III

Around the world

In China hundreds of millions travel home in the largest annual human migration. Korea celebrates Seollal, Vietnam Tết, each with its own customs. Lion and dragon dances fill Chinatowns from San Francisco to London.

Questions people ask

What is the animal of 2027?

The goat, also translated sheep or ram, the eighth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Why red envelopes?

Elders give children and unmarried relatives money in red envelopes, hongbao, as a wish for luck and protection in the new year.

Sources and further reading

  1. Toronto Metropolitan University, “2027 Calendar of Religious, Indigenous and Spiritual Observances”
  2. Livia Kohn, Daoism and Chinese Culture (Three Pines Press, 2001)
  3. Patricia Bjaaland Welch, Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery (Tuttle, 2008)

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