Calendar

Chinese New Year Dates

Chinese New Year falls on a different Gregorian date every year because it follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar, not the solar one most of the world uses.

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Why the date moves around so much

Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (occasionally the third, in years with an intercalary leap month) — which puts it somewhere between January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar, but never on a fixed day. Because the lunar year runs about 11 days shorter than the solar year, the date drifts earlier year over year until a leap month is inserted to pull it back, which is why some years (like the jump from a late-January date to a mid-February one) look like a bigger swing than others.

A note on precision

Unlike Easter, computing this date from scratch requires actual astronomical new-moon timing referenced to the Chinese time zone, not a simple fixed-rule formula — so the dates below are sourced from published astronomical calendars rather than calculated in your browser, and are accurate as officially observed.

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