China’s year turns on the lunisolar calendar — the Spring Festival and its lanterns, dragon boats in early summer, the Mid-Autumn moon — while the peoples of the southwest keep their own new years with water in Xishuangbanna and fire in Liangshan.
Photo: Yosomono from Fukuoka, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The traditional festivals of the Han Chinese follow the Chinese lunisolar calendar, so their Gregorian dates move from year to year; the dates in this atlas are read from the Hong Kong Observatory’s official conversion tables. The Spring Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival are both inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
China is also home to many ethnic groups with festivals of their own. In the south of Yunnan the Dai welcome their new year in April with water; in Liangshan and across the southwest the Yi light torches at midsummer.
中秋节
On the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is held to be at its fullest and brightest, Chinese families gather to share mooncakes, carry lanterns and look at the moon — a harvest festival with the legend of Chang’e at its heart.
September 25, 2026Calculated
春节
The first day of the Chinese lunisolar year is the most important holiday in Chinese culture — a season of homecoming, spring couplets on the door, a reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve and visits to relatives, which sets off one of the largest annual migrations in the world.
February 5 – 6, 2027Calculated
元宵节
On the first full moon of the Chinese year, the New Year season ends in light — lantern riddles, sweet rice balls, and great lantern fairs such as those at Nanjing’s Confucius Temple and in Zigong, Sichuan, which run from the Spring Festival to this night.
February 20, 2027Calculated
泼水节
In mid-April the Dai of Xishuangbanna welcome their new year by washing statues of the Buddha and drenching each other with water for luck — three days of dragon boat races, rockets, dances and a city-wide water fight in Jinghong.
April 13 – 15, 2027Estimated
端午节
On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, crews race long carved dragon boats, families eat zongzi, and doors are hung with calamus and mugwort — a festival of remembrance and protection, the first Chinese festival inscribed by UNESCO.
June 9, 2027Calculated
火把节
At the height of summer the Yi of Liangshan and Yunnan light torches of wormwood and pine, carry them around their homes and fields to drive away misfortune, and dance around bonfires all night — with horse races, wrestling and bullfights by day.
July 27, 2027Calculated