Spring Festival

Spring Festival in China, widely called Chinese New Year in English, begins a new year in the Chinese lunisolar calendar and anchors the country’s most important family holiday season. Its practices have developed over centuries through household, regional and religious traditions rather than from one founding event. Reunion, renewal, respect for elders and hopes for health or prosperity connect customs that otherwise vary greatly. In 2024 UNESCO inscribed the social practices of the Chinese people celebrating traditional new year on its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The current national regulations grant four statutory days: Lunar New Year’s Eve and the first three days of the first lunar month. In 2026 New Year’s Eve is Monday, February 16 and Lunar New Year’s Day is Tuesday, February 17. The State Council joins those statutory dates with weekly rest and adjusted days to create a nine-day mainland break from February 15 through February 23; Saturday, February 14 and Saturday, February 28 are designated working days. The long schedule supports chunyun, the large seasonal movement of people returning to family homes.

Reunion dinners, red couplets, house cleaning, hongbao, ancestor remembrance, temple fairs and lion or dragon dances appear in different combinations. Fireworks and large gatherings remain subject to local rules. Government bodies and schools follow the annual arrangement, while private and continuous-operation workplaces apply statutory leave, rest and overtime provisions through their own rosters. Hong Kong and Macao publish separate Lunar New Year holidays and do not use the mainland’s nine-day break or its two make-up Saturdays automatically.