What Is the Spring Festival?
The World's Largest Annual Celebration
Over 1.4 billion people celebrate the turn of the lunisolar year
The Name "Spring Festival" (春節, )
The name "Spring Festival" is surprisingly recent. For over a thousand years, the lunar new year was called 元旦 (, "first morning"). The earliest documented use appears in a poem by Xiao Ziyun (蕭子雲, ) of the Liang Dynasty (502–557 CE): "四氣新元旦，萬壽初今朝" ("The four seasons begin anew at Yuandan, ten thousand years of longevity start this morning").
The name change came through two political acts in rapid succession:
- 1912 — Sun Yat-sen (孫中山, ) proclaimed the Republic of China and adopted the Gregorian calendar. He reassigned the name 元旦 () to January 1st on the Gregorian calendar, leaving the lunar new year temporarily unnamed.
- January 23, 1914 — Yuan Shikai's Interior Minister Zhu Qiqian (朱啟鈐, ) formally proposed renaming the lunar new year as 春節 (, "Spring Festival"). The proposal was approved, giving the celebration its modern name.
In 1949, the People's Republic of China reconfirmed this arrangement. The term 春節 () is thus a 20th-century political creation — the celebration itself is ancient, but its current name dates only to 1914.
Before 1914, the lunar new year was variously called 元旦 (), 歲首 (, "year's head"), 正旦 (, "first dawn"), or simply 過年 (, "passing the year") — a colloquial term still universally used today.
— Historical note on pre-Republican naming conventionsAncient Origins
The festival's roots lie in ancient year-end sacrificial rites (臘祭, ) during the Shang Dynasty, when people offered sacrifices to ancestors and deities to give thanks for the harvest and pray for a prosperous new year. The word "Nian" (年, ) originally referred to the ripening of grain — a full harvest cycle.
By the Zhou Dynasty, formalised celebrations at year's end included communal feasting and ritual offerings. Emperor Wu of Han's calendar reform in 104 BCE fixed the new year to the first day of the first lunar month, establishing the date that has endured for over two thousand years.
The Nian Beast Myth — A Modern Invention
Scholarly Correction
The "Nian beast" (年獸, ) story is a 20th-century invention. No pre-Qing source mentions a beast called "Nian." The earliest known version is by Sun Yusheng (孫玉聲, ) in the Shanghai tabloid 《金剛鑽》 () on January 17, 1933. The canonical version was amplified by a 1980 《人民日報》 () article and entered school textbooks.
年，穀熟也 — "Nian means the ripening of grain."— Xu Shen, 《說文解字》 () (c. 100 CE)
The character 年 () referred to the annual agricultural harvest cycle, not a creature. The real origins of Spring Festival customs are better documented and far older than any beast myth.
Authentic Pre-Qing Origins of New Year Customs
The Spring Festival customs falsely attributed to the Nian beast each have their own distinct, well-documented histories:
Firecrackers (爆竹, )
"正月一日……雞鳴而起，先於庭前爆竹，以辟山臊惡鬼。"
"On the first day of the first month… rise at cockcrow, and set off bamboo crackers in the courtyard to drive away the mountain sprites and evil ghosts (山臊/山魈)."
— Zong Lin (宗懍, ), 《荊楚歲時記》 (, Record of the Seasons of Jing and Chu), 6th century CEThe original "firecrackers" were literally exploding bamboo — green bamboo stalks thrown into fires, which burst loudly as trapped air expanded. The practice targeted 山臊 () or 山魈 (), mountain spirits believed to cause illness — not any beast called "Nian." Gunpowder firecrackers appeared after the Tang Dynasty invention of black powder, eventually replacing bamboo.
Red Decorations — from Peachwood Charms (桃符, )
Red decorations did not originate from a beast's fear. They evolved from 桃符 () — peachwood boards inscribed with the names of protective deities 神荼 () and 鬱壘 (), hung beside doors to repel evil. This practice is documented from the Han Dynasty. During the Five Dynasties (907–960 CE), auspicious couplets began replacing deity names. By the Ming Dynasty, peachwood was replaced by red paper, completing the evolution to the spring couplets (春聯, ) we recognise today.
Door Gods (門神, )
Door gods evolved through three stages:
- Han Dynasty — 桃符 () boards with the names Shentu and Yulei carved on them
- Sui–Tang period — Carved wooden deity figures replaced inscriptions
- Tang Dynasty onward — Painted generals Qin Shubao (秦叔寶, ) and Yuchi Gong (尉遲恭, ) became the dominant door god pair, based on a legend about Emperor Taizong's nightmares
Spring Couplets (春聯, )
The tradition of paired auspicious poetry on doorframes originated in the Five Dynasties period (907–960 CE). The earliest recorded spring couplet is attributed to Meng Chang (孟昶, ), the last ruler of Later Shu: "新年納餘慶，嘉節號長春" ("In the new year receive lasting blessings; on this fine festival, hail enduring spring"). The practice moved from peachwood boards to red paper during the Ming Dynasty, when Emperor Taizu is said to have encouraged their widespread adoption.
Staying Up on New Year's Eve (守歲, )
The custom of staying awake through New Year's Eve is documented since the Jin Dynasty (265–420 CE). The poet Zhou Chu (周處, ) described the practice in 《風土記》 (): families gathered, feasted, and stayed up together to "guard the year's passing." This had nothing to do with fearing a beast — it was an act of reverence for time, family unity, and the threshold between old and new.
The Fifteen Days of Celebration
Traditional Customs (Pre-Qing)
Spring Couplets (春聯, ) — Paired lines of auspicious poetry hung on doorframes. This literary tradition dates to the Five Dynasties period (907-960 CE), when they were carved on peach wood boards before evolving to red paper during the Ming Dynasty.
Door Gods (門神, ) — Painted guardian figures on gates, a custom established by the Tang Dynasty. The most famous pair are Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong, generals of Emperor Taizong.
Paper Cutting (剪紙, ) — Intricate red paper designs depicting zodiac animals, flowers, and auspicious characters, displayed on windows to welcome the new year.
Red Envelopes (紅包, ) — Containing lucky money (壓歲錢, , literally "money to suppress age"), given by elders to children as blessings for the coming year.
Firecrackers (鞭炮, ) — Originally bamboo thrown into fires (which cracked loudly when heated), later evolving into gunpowder firecrackers after the Tang Dynasty invention of black powder.
Festival Foods
Kaigong Lishi — The Red Envelope's Song Dynasty Origin (開工利是, )
The modern practice of bosses distributing red envelopes to employees when businesses reopen after the New Year holiday (開工利是, ) traces to a documented Southern Song Dynasty custom in the capital Lin'an (臨安, , modern Hangzhou).
Zhou Mi (周密, , 1232–1298) recorded in 《武林舊事》 (, "Old Affairs of Wulin") that during the Lantern Festival season, government officials would distribute 楮券 (, paper money / huizi) to small traders in a practice called 買市 (, "buying the market") — essentially stimulating commerce by giving merchants working capital.
— Zhou Mi, 《武林舊事》 (), Southern Song Dynasty (c. 1270s)The term 利市 () itself is far older. It appears in the 《左氏傳》 (, Zuo Commentary, Spring and Autumn period) and the 《易傳》 (, Commentary on the Book of Changes), where it means "profitable market" or "auspicious transaction." The Song Dynasty 利市袋兒 (, "lishi pouch") was a direct precursor of the modern red envelope.
After the Song Dynasty, this specific custom of official money distribution appears to fade from historical records — it is not found in Ming or Qing sources in the same form. The modern revival of 開工利是 () occurs primarily in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, where the Cantonese pronunciation "利是" (lai see / lei si) preserves the ancient Chinese reading more closely than Mandarin "lìshì."
Temple Fairs and Performances
The lion dance and dragon dance date to the Han Dynasty. Temple fairs (廟會, ) feature folk performances, stilt walking, yangge dancing, and opera. These gatherings served essential social functions in traditional Chinese society, reinforcing community bonds and providing entertainment during the long winter festival.
The Lantern Festival (元宵節, )
The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month — the first full moon of the new year. It marks the culmination and formal conclusion of the Spring Festival period.
A Native Chinese Festival, Not Buddhist
A widespread misconception attributes the Lantern Festival to Buddhism — specifically to Emperor Ming of Han (漢明帝, , r. 58–75 CE), who supposedly ordered lanterns lit to honour the Buddha. This is historically indefensible. The primary source for the Buddhist claim, the Hanfa Ben Nei Zhuan (漢法本內傳, ), is a recognised pseudepigraphic forgery from the 5th–6th century CE, fabricated during the competitive Buddhist–Daoist polemical wars. The scholar Liang Qichao (梁啟超, ) dismissed it as a monk's fabrication "accepted through repetition."
The actual evidence predates Buddhism in China by centuries:
- 104 BCE — Emperor Wu of Han (漢武帝, ) formally established the worship of Taiyi (太一, , the Supreme Unity deity) on the first month at Ganquan Palace. The Shiji (史記, , Records of the Grand Historian) records an all-night ceremony "from dusk through the night until dawn" with communal singing — the essential elements that later characterised the Lantern Festival.
- Pre-Qin period — The Liji (禮記, , Book of Rites) records first-month prayers for grain harvest (元日祈穀, ) offered by the Son of Heaven to the Supreme Deity — a purely agricultural and calendrical ceremony.
Buddhism did not become a significant cultural force in China until the 4th–5th century CE. The Buddhist lamp-burning custom was layered onto an already-existing Chinese festival, not the origin of it.
The Etymology of Yuanxiao (元宵, )
The name itself encodes astronomical knowledge. The character 宵 (, "night") is composed of 宀 (, roof/covering) over 肖 () — which contains 小 (, small) above 月 (, moon). The traditional gloss is 小月為宵 (): "when the moon becomes small, that is xiao." The character encodes the very concept of the moon's diminution after fullness.
元宵 () therefore means: "the first time in the year the full moon begins to wane." The 15th of the first month (正月十五, ) is by definition the year's first full moon (望日, ) — after this night, the moon rises ~52 minutes later each day and gradually diminishes. This is not a religious designation but a purely astronomical and calendrical one.
Moonlight and the Origin of Night Festivities
In an era before artificial lighting, the full moon was the only source of illumination for nighttime outdoor activity. The 15th-day full moon provided maximum natural light — the moon at 100% illumination, rising at dusk and setting at dawn. This practical reality explains why Lantern Festival customs centre on nighttime gatherings: lantern viewing, night outings (夜遊, ), performances, and social mingling.
After the 15th, moonrise gets progressively later (~52 minutes per day) and the waning crescent provides less light in the first half of the night. Ancient Chinese accordingly observed 宵禁 (, curfew) — staying home after dark. The Tang Dynasty famously lifted the curfew (金吾不禁夜, , "the golden guards do not enforce the night curfew") specifically for the three nights around the Lantern Festival, testament to its unique status.
Lantern riddles (燈謎, ) — riddles written on lanterns for people to solve — became a beloved intellectual pastime by the Song Dynasty, adding a layer of wit and literacy to the festival's ancient lunar celebrations.
The Ming Dynasty: Ten Days of Celebration
The Lantern Festival reached its most magnificent scale during the Ming Dynasty. The Yongle Emperor (明成祖朱棣, , r. 1402–1424) expanded the celebration to an extraordinary ten-day public holiday — the longest Lantern Festival holiday in Chinese imperial history.
In the 7th year of the Yongle era (1409), on a guichou day of the first month, the Emperor addressed the Ministry of Rites:
「……思與臣民同樂。自正月十一為始，其賜元宵節假十日。百官朝參不奏事，有急務與本封進處分，聽軍民張燈飲酒為樂，五城兵馬司弛夜禁，著為令。」— Ming Taizong Shilu (明太宗實錄, , Veritable Records of Ming Taizong)
"…I wish to share joy with my officials and people. Starting from the 11th of the first month, grant a ten-day Lantern Festival holiday. Officials shall attend court but need not present memorials. Urgent matters shall be handled through sealed dispatches. Let soldiers and civilians hang lanterns, drink wine, and make merry. The Five City Military Police shall lift the night curfew. Let this be proclaimed as law."
The Aoshan Lantern Display (鰲山燈會, )
Zhu Di ordered the construction of the legendary Aoshan Wansui Deng (鰲山萬歲燈, , "Immortal Turtle Mountain Lantern of Ten Thousand Years") outside the Wu Gate (午門, ) of the Forbidden City. Tens of thousands of coloured lanterns were stacked into the shape of a mountain, blazing brilliantly like stars in the night sky. After the Emperor viewed the display, officials and common people alike were permitted to visit and admire the Aoshan for three days.
The Yongle Emperor's grandson, the Xuande Emperor (宣德帝朱瞻基, ), was himself a poet and painter who wrote verses celebrating the Aoshan:
"A myriad turtle peaks rise tier upon tier to part the clouds; a thousand branches of fire trees rival the brilliance of the moon."
「鰲峰萬疊翠巍巍，太液澄波一鑑開」
"A myriad turtle peaks rise in emerald majesty; the clear waves of Taiye Pool open like a mirror."
Zhu Di and the People's Welfare
The Yongle Emperor also expressed a remarkably progressive attitude toward governance. The Ming Taizong Shilu records his words:
「如得斯民小康，朕之願也。」— Ming Taizong Shilu (明太宗實錄, )
"If the people can achieve moderate prosperity (xiaokang), that is my wish."
Historical records also note that during major construction projects of the Yongle era — including the building of the Forbidden City and the relocation of the capital to Beijing — the Emperor mandated shift rotation systems (輪班制, ), overtime compensation, meals and medical care for workers, and high-temperature subsidies. Officials supervising construction were instructed to "cherish the workers' strength and be mindful of their labour" (務在撫恤軍民夫匠，用工之時要愛惜他的氣力，體念他的勤勞).
"Chinese New Year" vs. "Lunar New Year" — The Naming Debate
In recent years, a concerted campaign has pushed to replace the term "Chinese New Year" with "Lunar New Year" in English-language media and international institutions. Understanding the origin and motives of this campaign requires examining both the historical facts and the organisations involved.
Who Is Driving the Change?
VANK (반크, Voluntary Agency Network of Korea) is a South Korean internet-based organisation founded in 1999 by Park Ki-tae. With approximately 120,000 Korean members and 30,000 international members — predominantly students — VANK describes itself as a "cyber diplomatic delegation." Since February 2019, VANK has publicly campaigned to pressure Google, overseas media, government institutions, and the United Nations to stop using "Chinese New Year" and adopt "Lunar New Year" instead.
VANK's lobbying tactics include mass email campaigns to international organisations, Change.org petitions targeting the UN (triggered by UN stamps using "Chinese Lunar Calendar"), and sustained pressure on Google's Knowledge Graph results. The organisation has also campaigned on issues such as renaming the "Sea of Japan" and territorial claims over the Liancourt Rocks.
The Historical Facts
The Calendar Is Chinese in Origin
The lunisolar calendar system — including the sexagenary cycle, the 24 Solar Terms, the zodiac animals, and the intercalary month rules — was developed in China over millennia. Korea, Vietnam, and Japan adopted these systems from China, sometimes with minor local modifications. Korean academic sources themselves confirm this: "Korean calendars were adopted from China" (Sohn Ho-min, Korean Language in Culture and Society, University of Hawaii Press, 2006).
The chronology of Korean calendar adoption is well documented:
- Until 1281 — Korea used the Tang Dynasty Xuanming calendar (宣明曆, )
- 1281 — Adopted the Yuan Dynasty Shoushi calendar (授時曆, )
- Sejong era — Created the Chiljeongsan (七政算, ), Korea's first locally adapted calendar, but explicitly based on the Chinese Shoushi calendar
- 1653 — Adopted the Qing Dynasty Shixian calendar (時憲曆, ), which remained the basis of the Korean traditional calendar
- 1896 — Korea adopted the Gregorian calendar
It Is Not a "Lunar" Calendar
The term "Lunar New Year" is technically inaccurate. The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar (陰陽合曆, ) system, not a pure lunar calendar. A purely lunar calendar — like the Islamic Hijri calendar — has a year of approximately 354 days that drifts through all seasons. The Chinese calendar's new year is anchored to the winter solstice and always falls between January 21 and February 20 precisely because of its solar component (the 24 Solar Terms). The Chinese name 農曆 (, "agricultural calendar") reflects this seasonal character. Calling the festival "Lunar New Year" obscures this fundamental astronomical distinction. For more on how the calendar works, see our Chinese Calendar page.
UNESCO Recognition (2024)
On December 4, 2024, UNESCO inscribed "Spring Festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of traditional new year" onto its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The official title explicitly attributes the festival to "the Chinese people" — an international acknowledgment of its Chinese cultural identity.
The debate is not a simple naming preference — it is a question of historical attribution. The calendar system, the festival traditions (reunion dinners, red envelopes, firecrackers, lion and dragon dances, ancestor worship, the zodiac), and the institutional custodianship of the calendar all originate from Chinese civilisation. Acknowledging "Chinese New Year" as the historically accurate English-language term does not deny that Korean (Seollal), Vietnamese (Tet), and other cultures celebrate their own new year traditions on the same calendar — it simply recognises where the calendar and its core practices come from.
— Editorial noteSpring Festival and the Zodiac
Each Chinese New Year ushers in a new zodiac animal. The incoming animal's personality is believed to colour the character of the entire year. People born in the same animal year enter their Ben Ming Nian (本命年, ) — their own zodiac year — which is traditionally considered a year of challenges requiring special precautions, most notably wearing red undergarments throughout the year.
For a detailed exploration of the “Chinese New Year” vs. “Lunar New Year” naming question and why the distinction matters, visit our sister site ChineseNewYear.wiki.
Watch: Spring Festival Celebrations
Witness the living traditions of China's most important festival — from folk customs and performances to the spectacle of dragon and lion dance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, between January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar. The date shifts yearly because of the lunisolar calendar system.
The festival spans 15 days, from New Year's Day to the Lantern Festival on the 15th of the first lunar month. New Year's Eve and the first five days are the most intensely celebrated.
The Nian beast (年獸, Niánshòu) story is a modern invention, NOT an ancient legend. The earliest known source is Sun Yusheng (孫玉聲, Sūn Yùshēng) writing in the Shanghai tabloid《金剛鑽》(Jīngāngzuàn) on January 17, 1933. The canonical version was popularised by a 1980《人民日報》(Rénmín Rìbào) article and entered school textbooks. The actual pre-Qing customs of firecrackers, red decorations, and staying up on New Year's Eve have separate, well-documented origins unrelated to any beast myth.
Red (紅, hóng) symbolises good fortune, joy, and vitality in Chinese culture. Red decorations evolved from the ancient practice of hanging 桃符 (táofú) — peachwood charms inscribed with protective deities. Peachwood was believed to ward off evil spirits since the Han Dynasty. The shift to red paper occurred during the Ming Dynasty when spring couplets moved from carved wood to paper.
Chinese New Year is the original celebration on the Chinese lunisolar calendar. The term 'Lunar New Year' is a mistranslation — the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, not lunar — and was deliberately promoted to erase the word 'Chinese' from the festival's name. Korea celebrates Seollal, Vietnam celebrates Tết, and each has its own name. The correct terms are 'Chinese New Year' or 'Spring Festival' (春節).
Since 2019, the South Korean organisation VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea) has campaigned to rename 'Chinese New Year' to 'Lunar New Year' in international media and institutions like the UN and Google. The historical record shows that the lunisolar calendar system, the zodiac, the 24 Solar Terms, and the festival traditions all originated in China. Korean academic sources confirm Korea adopted the Chinese calendar system. In December 2024, UNESCO inscribed the Spring Festival as Chinese intangible cultural heritage.
No. The Lantern Festival is an indigenous Chinese festival predating Buddhism's arrival in China by at least two centuries. Emperor Wu of Han established Taiyi worship ceremonies on the first month in 104 BCE — over a century before Buddhism arrived (c. 67 CE). The Buddhist attribution, based on the forged text Hanfa Ben Nei Zhuan, was a product of 5th–6th century Buddhist–Daoist polemical competition. The name 元宵 (Yuánxiāo) itself encodes lunar astronomical knowledge: 宵 (xiāo) means 'when the moon becomes small' — 元宵 (Yuánxiāo) marks the first full moon of the year beginning to wane.
Discussion
Sign in with GitHub to join the conversation.