Lunar New Year Celebration

Lunar New Year is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. It is the most important holiday in China, and it is also widely celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam, and countries with a significant overseas Chinese population. While the official dates encompassing the holiday vary by culture, those celebrating consider it the time of the year to reunite with immediate and extended family.

Commonly known as the Spring Festival in China, Lunar New Year is a fifteen-day celebration marked by many traditions. At home, families decorate windows with red paper cuttings and adorn doors with couplets expressing auspicious wishes for the new year. Shopping for holiday sundries in open-air markets and cleaning the house are also beloved traditions. The Lunar New Year’s Eve reunion dinner is the highlight that kicks off the holiday, a feast with a spread of symbolic dishes, such as a whole fish representing abundance, that bring good luck and fortune. The fifteenth and final day of the holiday is the Lantern Festival, during which people have tangyuan, or sweet glutinous rice balls, and children carry lanterns around the neighborhood at night to mark the end of the celebration.

Enjoy our Lunar New Year digital library, which represents the richness of traditions and celebrations across cultures. Connect to your loved ones near and far with an e-card featuring an artwork from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Send an e-card to friends and family

Start the new year by connecting your loved ones near and far. Send an artwork from the National Museum of Asian Art and write a personalized note.

a bowl with a pink flowers and deep green leaves against a spring-green background
a variety of jade disks, green, brown and tan, with holes in the center
a painting of plum blossoms showing pink flowers and sweeping grey branches



Get creative with art-inspired activities for all ages

Create your own Monkey King mask and download pictures of artworks from our collections that you can color.

Learn more about Lunar New Year traditions

We’re celebrating Lunar New Year by sharing personal insights about how different countries mark the holiday. Post your own traditions in the comment sections of these blogs.

 

Discover art and music online

Enjoy our library of Lunar New Year videos highlighting collections, performances, and past celebrations.

For Educators: Teaching China with the Smithsonian

Discover videos and objects related to Lunar New Year. These resources are perfect asynchronous learning assignments for students in grades 5 through 12.

Students in Mandarin language immersion classes may be interested in viewing Teaching China with the Smithsonian’s thirty-two videos, now with captions in Mandarin.

Take an immersive tour of two Chinese artworks through story maps from Google Arts and Culture:

Need a fun interactive activity? Complete our Lunar New Year-inspired puzzle.

 

Show your festive spirit on Zoom

Join your next Zoom call with a newly designed Zoom background using artworks from the Freer and Sackler collections.

detail from a black and white painting of flowers and branches
detail from a blue and white vase
detail from a painting of plum blossoms
detail from a red round container
A small sculpture of a bull or ox
detail from a painting, New Year’s Eve in the palace

Enjoy even more Lunar New Year activities with our Smithsonian partner, Smithsonian American Art Museum.