Lunar New Year Calendar: Dates, Festivities and Traditions

You may have heard of the Chinese New Year being referred to as Lunar New Year. “Lunar” means the start of a new year as marked by the lunar calendar. The Chinese used the lunar calendar for thousands of years until they adopted the Gregorian calendar in the 20th century.

Did you know: the Chinese zodiac is based on the lunar calendar.

While most aspects of life in China use the Western calendar these days, traditional Chinese holidays that have been passed down through history are still calculated using this ancient calendar. These holidays include Chinese New Year and the yearly Lantern Festival, among many others.

History of the Chinese Lunar Calendar

As is the case with many aspects of Chinese culture, the lunar calendar has gone through many iterations until it took its present form. By some counts, China has amended its calendar a total of 102 times.

The oldest record of the lunar calendar dates to the Shang Dynasty, some four thousand years ago. It was created using rudimentary astronomical and geographical observations. Later, this calendar incorporated primitive forms of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches systems, which used simple numbers to record the passing of time.

When Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor in China) united the warring states, he standardized many systems, including units of measure, the currency and the calendar. By the Han Dynasty, the calendar came under imperial dictation. It became a scientific discipline that the emperors of all the dynasties that followed made changes to as science and astronomy advanced.

In the Tang Dynasty, the lunar calendar was taken back to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam by visiting scholars and became the state calendar in those countries.

In the early 1900’s, with the abolition of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China, the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted. Even so, the lunar calendar continues to hold a place of honor in Chinese culture to this day, governing aspects of life such as traditional holidays, Feng Shui and the calculations of fortune using Bazi. For this reason, even today, the Chinese government continues to publish the lunar calendar each year, to let people know when to celebrate the traditional holidays.  

How the Lunar Calendar Works

The Gregorian calendar that we use is based on the movement of the sun, while the lunar calendar considers the movement of the sun and the moon. This makes the calendar lunisolar, in technical terms. 

According to the lunar calendar, the first day of each month takes place when the moon moves into a position directly between Earth and the sun. The sun’s shadow prevents us from seeing the moon here on Earth. When Earth is between the sun and the moon, we see a full moon, which signifies the middle of the month. The moon then wanes towards the end of the month until the next cycle starts again.

Leap Month

Unlike the Western calendar, each month in the lunar calendar is 29 or 30 days, because the average frequency of each new moon cycle is 29.53059 days. This is sometimes rounded up to 30, sometimes down to 29. This means that the lunar calendar, which also has 12 months, is only 354 or 355 days. This is 11 days less than a tropical year – the time that the sun takes to return to the same position as observed from Earth, which is 365.25 days. That’s why the lunar calendar adds a leap month every 3 years or so, or 7 leap years every 19 years, to be precise. 

In a year with a leap month, the lunar calendar will have 13 months instead of 12. The leap month that is added is repeated. For example, the last leap month was April 2020, which meant that year in the lunar calendar had two Aprils. The next will be February 2023. After that, there will also be leap months in 2025, 2028, 2031, 2033, and 2036.

Chinese Calendar Years 2020 - 2031

Almost all the features of Chinese culture you may have heard of, including zodiac animals, Chinese New Year, Tai Sui and the Five Elements Theory, are based on the lunar calendar. You can find the start and finish (in Gregorian calendar dates) of the lunar years in the current decade below, along with their zodiac animals.

Read more: Every Chinese zodiac sign from 1900-2031

Traditional Holidays in the Lunar Calendar

As we have mentioned, many of the holidays celebrated in China and other Chinese speaking countries and regions, follow the lunar calendar. The most well-known, of course, is Chinese New Year (read our guide for 2025). But there are a few others that have great sentimental value for the Chinese, and are associated with a long history and many customs. Here is a schedule of the holidays still celebrated by Chinese communities around the world.

Chinese New Year

This is without a doubt the biggest holiday in China and other Chinese speaking communities around the world. Officially, it is the first day of the first month of the year in the lunar calendar, but this often comprises a full holiday season lasting for an entire month. It is a time when Chinese people everywhere reunite with their families, catch up on their year and usher in the new year with many rituals. You can find more about Chinese New Year, including a day-to-day guide for all the associated traditions, here.

Lantern Festival

This day is often considered the end of the month-long New Year celebration. As we’ve noted above, the middle of the month is the full moon, which means the Lantern Festival is the first full moon of the new year, and signifies the start of spring. Traditions on this day include appreciating the beauty of the moon, creating lanterns and light shows, guessing riddles, and eating sticky rice balls with a sweet filling, which resemble the moon. 

Qingming Festival

This day is also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. It is celebrated on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox. With the arrival of spring, this day is for taking a trip to the countryside and sweeping the tombs of ancestors. People give offerings at the tombs and often also remember family members who have gone far away. In some parts of China, people consume green dumplings made with sticky rice and Chinese mugwort powder. 

Dragon Boat Festival

As its name implies, this day was the origin of the popular sport of dragon boat racing. Legend has it that a patriot back in the ancient times was framed and sentenced to death by his lord, even though he was a benevolent governor to the people. When he threw himself into the river, the people wanted to make sure his body was not eaten by the fishes, so they raced out in boats and threw in rice balls wrapped in reed leaves called “zongzi,” to feed the fishes and look for his body. These traditions have stayed popular to this day. 

Double Seventh Festival

You can think of this day as Valentine’s Day. It was a day for young men and young women to get to know each other and possibly confess their feelings. Legend has it that a pair of heavenly lovers were separated, but their love so touched the birds that once a year on this day, birds would form a bridge for them to meet. This is also a day when young women ask for blessings for good marriages and domestic skills from goddesses – not as relevant a practice today, of course! 

Mid-Autumn Festival

This festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month. Even though there are 12 full moons every year, the one on Mid-Autumn Festival is believed to be the brightest and most beautiful because the autumnal sky is clear, giving us the best view. It is customary to eat mooncakes, which are shaped like the moon. Lanterns are popular on this day. Also, because the full moon symbolizes completion and happiness, it is a time for family reunions.

 Double Ninth Festival

This festival is celebrated in late fall, when the harvest would have been finished back when most Chinese still farmed for a living. Therefore, it’s a celebration of a successful year, a time to pay respect to elders – who are in the late autumn of their lives, and a time to enjoy the fall air by hiking to high places. Traditional activities also include flying kites and giving feasts to appreciate the beauty of chrysanthemum flowers, which blossom in the fall.