Chinese New Year 2025 - When is Chinese Lunar New Year, Date, Holiday, Calendar, Zodiac Sign

Chinese New Year 2025 is also called Spring Festival or Chinese Lunar New Year. In Mandarin, it's called Guonian or Chunjie. 2025 is the Year of the Snake.

Chunjie starts on Wednesday, January 29th and goes on until the Lantern Festival on February 12th. It's also the first Spring Festival after it was successfully added to the cultural heritage list. People in China get an 8-day holiday for the Chinese New Year 2025.

During this holiday, they gather with their families and watch the wonderful Spring Festival Gala while enjoying a delicious reunion dinner. A series of celebrations will continue until the 15th day of the lunar calendar, the Lantern Festival.

Chinese New Year Dates in 2025, 2026, 2027...

The date of the Spring Festival varies each year, with each new year corresponding to a specific zodiac animal, and Chinese people can enjoy a Chinese New Year holiday annually. You can also find Chinese Zodiac signs for each year.

Why Does Chinese New Year Date Change Every Year

China uses the Solar calendar (Gregorian calendar) and the lunar calendar to count the days. In the lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year always falls on the first day of the first month, but its date in the solar calendar changes every year.

To keep the Spring Festival's date in the solar calendar relatively stable, an extra month, called a leap month, is added to the lunar calendar every 2-3 years. When there is no leap month in the last lunar year, the Spring Festival of the next year will come about 11 days earlier. But if there is a leap month, Chunjie will be delayed by about 19 days. 

Chinese New Year 2025 Zodiac Sign: Snake

2025 is the Year of the Snake. It is the year of the Wood Snake. The snake symbolizes longevity, wisdom, and mystery in Chinese culture. Combining the snake and "wood" elements means 2025 will be a year of propensity and mystery.

People born in the Year of the Snake may seem cold, but they are actually warm-hearted. When they meet new friends, they are a bit guarded. But once they get close to their friends, they will care for them a lot. They have plans and goals when doing things, and can achieve success step by step.

The Year of the Snake occurs every 12 years in the Chinese zodiac cycle. Other Snake years include 1953, 1965, 1989, 2001 and 2013. For those born in these years, 2025 is their Benmingnian. It is considered inauspicious, so people usually wear red underwear and socks to ward off evil spirits.

Chinese New Year Holiday 2025

Officially, the Chinese people will have a holiday for about 7 days from Chinese New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the lunar new year.

In 2025, the Chinese New Year holiday lasts from January 28th to February 4th.

Some companies may extend the holiday up to 16 days.

During the Chinese New Year holiday, offices, factories, banks, and some non-service industry shops will temporarily close. However, many large shopping malls and town wet markets will be busier than usual.

Many people working away from home return to their hometowns to reunite with their families during the Spring Festival. As a result, highways and railway stations in China became crowded during this time. This phenomenon is called the Spring Festival travel rush or Chunyun.

Popular attractions and temples are always crowded. Usually, everything should get back to normal after the sixth day of the first lunar month.

Chinese New Year Lunar Calendar

On the China calendar, you can see two lines of numbers. One line has Arabic numbers, the solar calendar (Gregorian calendar), and the line below has Chinese characters, the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar in 2025 has 384 days, while the Gregorian calendar has 365 days.

Traditional Chinese festivals are based on the Lunar Calendar. The Spring Festival in 2025 will be on January 29th in the solar calendar. Its lunar calendar is on January 1st and the Chinese typically call it Danianchuyi (大年初一).

How Long Does Chinese New Year 2025 Last

The Chinese New Year 2025 starts on January 29th and ends on February 12th.

The Chinese New Year is traditionally celebrated for around 15 days, from the Chinese New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival. Celebrations vary daily, but they all aim to welcome the upcoming new year.

Some festivals during Chinese Lunar New Year are important:

• Laba Festival (January 7, 2025): eating Babao Porridge
• Little Year (January 22 to 23, 2025): house cleaning
• Chinese New Year's Eve (January 28, 2025): pasting spring couple and hanging red lantern
• Lantern Festival (January 19, 2025): joining in the temple fair

Read Chinese New Year Celebrations to learn how Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year day by day.

Why Does the Chinese New Year Last 15 Days

Chinese culture highly values the idea of completeness and emphasizes that things should have a beginning and an end. The first full moon night after the New Year falls on the Lantern Festival. A full moon symbolizes reunion and perfection. So this festival is used as the end of the Spring Festival. From the first day of the lunar New Year to the Lantern Festival, it is exactly fifteen days.

Chinese New Year Around the World

The United Nations has made the Chinese New Year an official holiday, and many Southeast Asian countries celebrate it with their traditions.

Malaysia: The holiday is from the first to the second day of the first lunar month. On the Lantern Festival, unmarried women write their names on oranges and throw them into the water, hoping a man will pick them up to find a partner. Anyone who is not married, no matter their age, can receive red envelopes.

Singapore: The holiday is from the first to the second day of the first lunar month. They give each other oranges, which means sharing wealth and hoping for prosperity in the new year.

Vietnam: The holiday lasts from the first to the fourth day of the first lunar month. They decorate their homes with peach blossoms, kumquat pots, and fruit plates for good luck and to honor ancestors. 

 

Chinese New Year 2026 - Year of the Horse

Chinese New Year 2026, also known as the Year of the Horse, will be celebrated on February 17th, 2026. People are going to obtain a 7-day holiday from Feb. 16-22.

The horse is a symbol of success, wealth, and loyalty. The other years of the horse include 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966, 1954, 1942…...

People who were born in these years are enthusiastic and outgoing.

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