Lunar New Year 2027: The Year of the Goat, and Where to Celebrate It

For a quarter of the world, the year starts in late January or February. Lunar New Year — Spring Festival in China, Tết in Vietnam, Seollal in Korea — is the biggest celebration of the year, and the biggest annual movement of people on the planet as everyone goes home.

When is Lunar New Year 2027?#

The traditions#

• Red everywhere — lanterns, couplets on doorways, clothes — for luck.
• The reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, the most important meal of the year.
• Red envelopes (hongbao) with money, given to children and unmarried relatives.
• Lion and dragon dances in the streets and outside shops.
• Fireworks at midnight, where they're allowed.
• Cleaning before, not after: you don't sweep the luck out on New Year's Day.

Where to celebrate#

• Hong Kong — decorations, flower markets, a night parade and, in most years, fireworks over Victoria Harbour.
• Singapore — Chinatown lit up for weeks, with street markets and events.
• Taipei — temple visits, night markets, and the Pingxi sky lanterns around the Lantern Festival.
• Penang and Kuala Lumpur — big open celebrations in multicultural cities.
• Vietnam — Tết is the year's biggest event: flower markets, family visits, a slower country for a week.
• Seoul — Seollal is a family holiday; palaces and folk villages hold traditional events.

Tips for travellers#

• Book early. It's the year's busiest week for trains and flights across the region.
• Expect closures. Many family-run shops and restaurants shut for the first days; big-city malls and hotels stay open.
• Prices rise for hotels and flights.
• Say "Happy New Year": Xīnnián kuàilè in Mandarin, Gong hei fat choy in Cantonese, Chúc mừng năm mới in Vietnamese.

The calendar#

Lunar New Year is one of the big dates of the season; all of them, month by month: the world events calendar.