Lunar New Year Celebration Ideas at Home
Lunar New Year is fifteen days long and most people plan one evening of it. Here is the shape of the whole thing, and how to host at home without trying to do all of it.
- The festival runs to the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day, so the single evening most people plan is one part of a much longer stretch.
- The reunion dinner on new year eve is the anchor. Everything else is optional.
- Cleaning happens before, not during. Sweeping on the day is widely avoided as sweeping the luck out.
- The customs differ by culture. Vietnamese Tet, Korean Seollal, Tibetan Losar and Mongolian Tsagaan Sar are not the same event with different names.
- If you are hosting friends new to it, tell them there will be a lot of food and a lot of visiting, so they can pace themselves.
The mistake almost every first-time host makes is planning one evening. Lunar New Year runs to the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day, and the single dinner that people picture is the anchor of something much longer.
That is good news for a host, because it means you do not have to put everything into one night.
The reunion dinner
New year eve, and it is the part that matters most. If you do one thing, do this.
It is a family meal and the emphasis is on everybody being at the same table, which is why it drives one of the largest annual movements of people on the planet. The food varies enormously by region and by culture, and the constant is quantity and abundance.
Practical advice for hosting it: cook fewer dishes in larger amounts, seat everybody at once rather than in shifts, and start earlier than you think, because the eating goes on for hours and nobody wants it finishing at midnight when there are still visitors due.
Before, not during
The cleaning happens in the days beforehand. The house gets cleared out, and then on the day itself sweeping is widely avoided, on the reasoning that you would be sweeping the new year's good fortune straight out of the door.
Whether or not you hold with it, it is a genuinely useful piece of scheduling. It puts the work before the celebration rather than during it, which is more than can be said for most festivals.
Decorations go up beforehand too: red, gold, paper cuttings, couplets on the doorframe, lanterns.
The visiting days
After the reunion dinner the shape changes to visiting. Households go to each other, usually oldest relatives first, and this goes on for days.
As a host that means keeping the table stocked with things that sit well: fruit, particularly citrus, nuts, dried fruit, sweets, tea constantly. As a guest it means bringing food and not staying too long, because there are more people arriving behind you.
Red envelopes move around during this period, from elders to children and sometimes to unmarried adults. Red envelope etiquette covers what we could verify about that and what we could not.
They are not all the same festival
Worth stating plainly because it changes how you host a mixed group. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center describes Chinese new year alongside Vietnamese Tet, Korean Seollal, Tibetan Losar and Mongolian Tsagaan Sar, and Losar does not always fall on the same day at all.
The zodiac differs too. Royal Museums Greenwich notes Vietnam has a cat where Chinese tradition has a rabbit, and a buffalo rather than an ox.
If you have guests from more than one of those traditions, the graceful move is to ask each of them what their family does, and then do a bit of it. That is a much better evening than picking one version and quietly making it the default.
For friends new to the festival
Tell them three things in advance. There will be a great deal of food, so do not eat beforehand. People may come and go for hours. And whether there is anything they should bring, which for most guests means fruit in even numbers or something for the table.
Warn them about the quantity specifically. A guest who paces themselves like a normal dinner party will be finished before the halfway point.
Celebrating it away from where you are from
A great many people mark this festival in a country where the calendar does not stop for it. The reunion dinner lands on a Tuesday, nobody at work knows, and the whole shape of the occasion has to be rebuilt from scratch.
Two things help. Move the dinner to the nearest weekend deliberately rather than apologetically, and tell people that is what you are doing. A meal held on Saturday with everybody present beats a correct-date meal with four people who could get away.
And build the guest list from whoever is around rather than from whoever is family. Some of the best versions of this I have been to were assembled out of colleagues, neighbors and one person's flatmate, and nobody minded that it was improvised, because the point of the evening was the full table.
For families with young children
The fifteen days give you room, which is the advantage over a one-day festival. Spread it out: decorations one afternoon, paper cutting another, the dinner, then the lanterns at the end.
Making decorations is the best activity of the lot because the results go straight on the wall and stay there for two weeks, which is a much better return than most craft afternoons.
The moment worth building
Every long gathering benefits from one point where everybody stops and looks the same way. At the reunion dinner it is usually the first toast.
If you want a second, a song about the family played once does it. We make those at Ditty City, so treat that as an interested recommendation rather than a neutral one, and personalized song gift ideas has the honest version.
For gifts, Lunar New Year gift ideas. For the card, what to write in a Lunar New Year card. The celebration ideas hub has the rest.
Frequently asked questions
How long does Lunar New Year last?
Celebrations run through to the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day, so the single reunion dinner most people picture is the anchor of a much longer stretch. That is useful for a host, because it means everything does not have to happen in one evening.
What is the reunion dinner?
The family meal on new year eve, and the part that matters most. The emphasis is on everybody being at the same table, which is why it drives one of the largest annual movements of people anywhere. Cook fewer dishes in larger amounts and start earlier than feels necessary.
Why do people clean before Lunar New Year?
The house is cleared out in the days beforehand, and on the day itself sweeping is widely avoided on the reasoning that it would sweep the new year good fortune out of the door. Whatever you make of that, it usefully puts the work before the celebration rather than during it.
How do I host guests who have never celebrated Lunar New Year?
Tell them three things in advance: there will be a great deal of food so they should not eat beforehand, people may come and go for hours, and whether to bring anything, which usually means fruit in even numbers. The quantity warning matters most.
Is Lunar New Year the same in every culture?
No. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center describes Chinese new year alongside Vietnamese Tet, Korean Seollal, Tibetan Losar and Mongolian Tsagaan Sar, and Losar does not always fall on the same day. The zodiac differs too, with a cat in Vietnam where Chinese tradition has a rabbit.