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New Year Holiday

New Year Holiday 2024, 2025 and 2026

China celebrates New Year’s Day with a public holiday every 1 January, as does most of the rest of the world. However, the celebrations really begin on New Year’s Eve and reach a high point with the turning of the clock from 11:59pm on 31 December to midnight on 1 January.

YearDateDayHoliday
20241 JanMonNew Year Holiday
20251 JanWedNew Year Holiday
20261 Jan to 2 JanThu to FriNew Year Holiday
Please scroll down to end of page for previous years' dates.

Overall, New Year’s Day Eve and Day are not comparable events to Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations 1-2 months later. Instead, “Western” New Year’s Day is basically an off-work day and a minor warm-up for the “real” New Year’s celebrations in China when people will travel vast distances to reunite with family and follow long-held Chinese New Year traditions.

China adopted the Western Calendar for many purposes back in 1912, so Chinese people are not unfamiliar with the idea of a new year starting on the first day of January. But as many cultural celebrations are based on the Chinese lunar calendar, there just isn’t much significance attached to “Western New Year’s Day”.

However, in some cities like Hong Kong and Macau, you will certainly see fireworks and other typical New Year’s traditions being carried out.

Previous Years

YearDateDayHoliday
20231 Jan to 2 JanSun to MonNew Year Holiday
20221 Jan to 3 JanSat to MonNew Year Holiday
20211 Jan to 3 JanFri to SunNew Year Holiday
20201 JanWedNew Year Holiday
20191 JanTueNew Year Holiday
20181 JanMonNew Year Holiday
30 Dec to 31 DecSun to MonNew Year Holiday
20171 Jan to 2 JanSun to MonNew Year Holiday
30 Dec to 31 DecSat to SunNew Year Holiday