Happy Lunar New Year!
Wednesday (Jan. 29) welcomes the Lunar New Year, a holiday with deep cultural and familial significance that is celebrated worldwide. The Lunar New Year occurs on the second new moon that follows the Winter Solstice, which means the date changes from year to year and can typically fall anywhere from Jan. 21 to Feb. 20.
During the Lunar New Year period, families and loved ones gather to eat traditional holiday foods and pay their respects to their ancestors. There are also parades worldwide featuring fireworks and colorful dancers with dragons or lions, and people typically exchange gifts. Lunar New Year celebrations last until the night of the first full moon to follow the holiday, which this year occurs on Feb. 12.
2025 welcomes the Year of the Snake, the sixth animal in the twelve-year cycle of animals in the Chinese zodiac. Each year is associated with one of the 12 animals, which some people believe represents characteristics of those born in those years.
In Chinese mythology, snakes are thought to be sensitive, resourceful, introverted and wise, according to ChineseNewYear.net. People born in 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 and now 2025 are associated with the snake, per the Chinese zodiac.
Like billions of other people around the world, the astronauts aboard China’s Tiangong space station (or taikonauts, as they’re known at home) are celebrating the Lunar New Year holiday.
In a video shared by China Central Television, the crew of the current Shenzhou-19 mission held up paper cuttings of the Chinese character 福 (fu, meaning “good luck” or “fortune”) and sent home a holiday greeting.
“We are in the space home of the Chinese people, wishing you all a happy Chinese New Year!,” the taikonauts said in the message. “We wish the people of the whole country good health and all the best in the Year of Snake! May our great motherland enjoy harmony and prosperity!”
Lunar New Year is celebrated by people worldwide, but is most prevalent throughout China and other Asian countries. Lunar New Year celebrations have been celebrated for thousands of years. The timing of the holiday is rooted in the traditional Chinese calendar, which is known as a lunisolar calendar. This means it follows the changing positions of the sun and moon in addition to the phases of the lunar cycle.
While the Gregorian calendar is used worldwide for official purposes such as government and business, many holidays, festivals and other celebrations and rites still follow traditional lunisolar calendars.
Because it is celebrated so widely throughout many parts of the world, the Lunar New Year period sees the world’s largest annual human migration each year. In China, there is a term for the annual travel rush: “Chunyun,” or “spring transportation,” named for the Chinese term for the Lunar New Year period, “Spring Festival.”
