Lunar New Year events around Puget Sound (greaterseattleonthecheap.com)

Seattle is home to a diverse community of Asian cultures who celebrate the Lunar New Year. These celebrations welcome the return of spring and chase out the dark days of winter (and the evil spirits who lurk there) with the lion dance, firecrackers, special foods, and other traditions.

Although the Lunar New Year is observed throughout East Asia, each country celebrates in its own way according to national and cultural customs. In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is called Tet.

Preparations may begin one or more days before the first day of the Lunar New Year and may continue for several days. Some traditions include cleaning and decorating the home, buying new clothes, exchanging small gifts or cards, paying respect to ancestors, and eating special foods.

Banh chung (sticky rice cake), traditional Vietnamese food for Lunar New Year – DepositPhotos.com

About the Lunar Calendar

Today, much of the world follows the Gregorian calendar, which is based on the solar year. The solar year is 365 days, which is the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun. The solar year, also called a tropical year, can be measured from the solstices (mid-summer and mid-winter) or the equinoxes (spring and fall). In actuality, a solar year is a tiny bit longer than 365 days–about 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds, which is why there’s a leap year every 4 years to add a day to compensate for this accumulated time.

In contrast to the solar calendar, the lunar calendar follows the phases of the moon, which as you might guess is how long it takes the Moon to orbit the Earth. There are 12 lunar months in a year and each lunar month averages about 29.5 days. If you are doing the math, there is an 11-day discrepancy between the solar and lunar calendars. So, a lunar “leap year” occurs every three years and adds a 13th month.

The phases of the lunar month begin with a new moon when the moon is directly in-between the Sun and Earth. As they days go by, the moon moves around the Earth (“waxes”) and appears crescent shaped in the sky, until it reaches the other side of our planet and becomes full in mid-month. Now Earth is between the Sun and Moon. Finally, the Moon completes its orbit (“wanes”), until it is once again new, between the Sun and Earth.

Jews and Muslims follow the lunar calendar. Chinese calendars are a type of lunisolar calendar, a combination of a solar calendar and a lunar calendar. Head to our solstice page for more solstice and equinox information and a calendar of related lantern festivals and light shows that occur throughout the year.

About Lunar New Year

Chinese Lunar New Year occurs somewhere between January 20 and February 10, nearly halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox. There are many ways to say Happy New Year in Chinese. They depend on who is saying it and to whom–for example, to an older person, a child, a friend, or co-worker.

To say “Happy New Year” in Mandarin, say Shin Nee-an Kwai Le
To friends and family, you can use the less formal Mandarin Shin Nee-an How.
Gung Hay Fat Choy is a common Cantonese phrase for Lunar New Year that wishes the receiver prosperity. So, it’s not strictly a “happy new year” phrase.

In Vietnamese culture, people celebrate Tet, which means “joint of a bamboo stern” and in a wider sense, the “beginning of a period of the year”. There are many Tets throughout the year (Mid-autumn Vietnamese New Year, Cold Food Vietnamese New Year, etc.). But the most significant of all is “Vietnamese New Year”, marking the Lunar New Year. On the day of Tet, wish yourself and others a Happy New Year or Chuc Mung Nam Moi.

It is traditional in many cultures to begin the Lunar New Year with a festive meal the evening before. Foods for Chinese Lunar New Year include long noodles, dumplings, rice cakes, spring rolls, turnips and radishes, fish, pork, and other dishes. Traditional Tet foods include special rice cakes called Banh Chung and Banh Tet, roasted watermelon seeds, pickled onions, boiled chicken, mung bean pudding, Vietnamese sausage (giò chả), red sticky rice, and sweet dried fruits. Here are some Asian New Year food ideas and inspiration:

2024 Year of the Dragon begins February 10

The years of the Chinese calendar follow a 12-year cycle. Each year is associated with one of 12 animal symbols in the Chinese zodiac. According to legend, the Jade Emperor invited the animals of his kingdom to enter a race through the countryside. The first 12 to finish the long race would each rule over one year every 12 years. The 12 animals are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit (cat in Vietnam), dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.

Lunar Year 2024 begins on Saturday, February 10, 2024 and is the year of the Dragon
Dragon years include 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964, 1952, 1940, and 1928. The next Dragon year is 2036.
Lunar New Year 2025 will begin on Wednesday. January 29, 2025 (Year of the Snake).

Lunar New Year events usually take place the weekend before and after the beginning of the new Lunar Year. Find events across the Puget Sound region in our calendar list below.

2024 Lunar New Year of the Dragon image by Hong W Jean via iStockphotos by Getty Images

Lunar New Year events in the Puget Sound region

Lunar New Year occurs somewhere between the last ten days of January and the first twenty days of February. We usually update Lunar New Year events beginning in January for the current year.