How many days until Chinese New Year?

When is Chinese New Year?

Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, is the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar. In 2027 it falls on Saturday, February 6, 2027 and begins the Year of the Goat.

The celebrations start the evening before, on New Year’s Eve, when families gather for the reunion dinner. The festival then runs for 15 days, to the Lantern Festival on the first full moon. It is celebrated across East and Southeast Asia and by communities around the world, and in Korea and Vietnam the same new year is known as Seollal and Tết.

How the date is set

Each month of the Chinese calendar begins on the day of a new moon, and the new year usually starts on the second new moon after the winter solstice. In the Gregorian calendar that always lands between January 21 and February 20, so the date moves from year to year.

The calendar’s days are reckoned at China’s time, so a new moon close to midnight can put the new year on a different day in calendars made for another time zone. That is why the dates on this page come from a published calendar rather than a formula.

How this countdown works

The page counts down to the start of New Year’s Day in your own time zone, using your device’s clock. The list under the countdown shows New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the Lantern Festival for the coming festival, and during the 15 days it shows which day of the festival it is.

The line under the counter names the zodiac animal and the dates its year runs, from one Lunar New Year to the day before the next.

Chinese New Year for the next five years

The zodiac animals

Each year belongs to one of twelve animals, in a fixed cycle: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. 2027 is the Year of the Goat, also called the Sheep or Ram, followed by the Monkey in 2028 and the Rooster in 2029.

Because the zodiac year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1, someone born in January 2027 belongs to the Year of the Horse, the animal of the year that began in February 2026.

Put the Lunar New Year countdown on your Home Screen

1. Install Left on your iPhone and open Ahead.
2. Tap Add a date ahead, choose New date, name it Lunar New Year and set Starts to New Year’s Day.
3. Add Left’s Ahead widget to your Home Screen or Lock Screen and choose the date in Edit Widget.

Because Lunar New Year moves every year, add the next year’s date once this one has passed; the table above has them. The Home Screen widget guide covers each step, and the countdown widget page shows the widget styles.

Read more

• The best countdown widgets for iPhone
• Organise your dates in Ahead and Since
• Add a widget to your iPhone Lock Screen

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