Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, widely known in Singapore as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, begins on the first day of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. In 2026, it falls on 17 February, ushering in the Year of the Horse; the celebrations begin on Chinese New Year's Eve, 16 February, with family reunion dinners and gatherings. The festival traditionally marks the arrival of spring, renewal, prosperity, and the opportunity to leave behind misfortune from the previous year.

Chinese New Year became an important part of Singapore's cultural history through the country's Chinese communities, whose ancestors migrated from southern China during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Customs from Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Hainanese, and other traditions developed alongside one another in Singapore's multicultural society. Today, the holiday is both a deeply meaningful family occasion and a major national celebration, reflected in public-holiday arrangements, Chinatown festivities, festive markets, temple visits, decorations, and large-scale cultural events such as River Hongbao and the Chingay Parade.

The most important custom is the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve, when families gather for an abundant meal symbolizing unity and good fortune. Popular Singaporean festive foods include yu sheng, a colourful raw-fish salad tossed during lo hei for prosperity; steamed or roasted fish, whole chicken, dumplings, nian gao, pineapple tarts, love letters, mandarin oranges, and bak kwa, the sweet barbecued meat especially associated with Singapore and Malaysia. Homes and businesses are decorated with red lanterns, couplets, paper cuttings, plum blossoms, and symbols of the zodiac, while new clothes and red packets, or hongbao, are exchanged with auspicious wishes.

During the first days of the festival, people commonly visit relatives and friends, offer mandarin oranges, attend temple prayers, watch lion and dragon dances, and enjoy festive light-ups and performances in Chinatown and other neighbourhoods. Many families avoid sweeping or throwing away rubbish on the first day, as this is traditionally believed to remove incoming luck, and some avoid unlucky words or quarrels. Common greetings include "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (恭喜发财), meaning "wishing you prosperity," "Xin Nian Kuai Le" (新年快乐), meaning "Happy New Year," and the Hokkien greeting "Kiong Hee Huat Chye," also expressing wishes for prosperity.