Lunar New Year 2026 चंद्र नव वर्ष

Why Lunar New Year is celebrated

Lunar New Year opens the year in the traditional lunisolar calendar followed in China and much of East Asia. It is the biggest family festival in that region. In China it is also called the Spring Festival, because it comes at the end of the coldest part of winter. On 17 February 2026 the Year of the Horse begins. In the Chinese zodiac cycle it is a Fire Horse year, a pairing that returns once in sixty years.

The festival is about reunion, closing the old year and inviting good luck. Hundreds of millions of people travel home for it, one of the largest yearly journeys of people anywhere.

History and story of Lunar New Year

The festival is more than two thousand years old and grew from farming customs and prayers to ancestors before spring planting. A popular legend tells of a beast called Nian that raided villages at the end of the year. People found it feared loud noise, fire and the colour red, so they hung red paper and lit firecrackers. These remain the core symbols today.

How Lunar New Year is celebrated

Families clean their homes before the new year to sweep out bad luck, then avoid sweeping for the first few days. A large reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve, with dumplings, fish and sticky rice cakes. Elders give children money in red envelopes. Lion and dragon dances, lanterns and fireworks fill the streets, and the season ends with the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day.

Lunar New Year across India

In India the day is not a public holiday. The Chinese community in Kolkata, centred on Tiretta Bazaar and Tangra, holds lion dances and temple prayers. Tibetan communities, including those around Dehradun, celebrate their own new year, Losar, at about this time of year, though it follows a separate calendar.