Find the date, understand the occasion, or prepare for an invitation. Start with the question you have.
Find an observance date for a particular year. The annual calendar supplies eight selected dates; this centre supplies the background links. For a longer comparison, use the ten-year reference. Neither is a promise of a day off or an event opening time.
Choose a named guide below. Each describes a particular occasion rather than offering one list of “Chinese customs”. Start with its calendar position and context; follow the story or source only when it helps answer the question you brought.
First identify who invited you and whether you are entering a public programme, a household gathering or a private remembrance. Our participation advice is an editorial starting point, not a rule spoken on behalf of a community. The host or organizer can explain your role.
These are the guides currently available, not an exhaustive festival list. The seasonal groups are an editorial, Northern Hemisphere way of finding your place—not local weather forecasts or formal astronomical boundaries.
Start with reunion and the close of the New Year season, then distinguish them from springtime remembrance.
Regular lunar month 1, day 1
Read about reunion, preparations and a celebration season that extends beyond one date. The guide keeps household and community differences visible instead of prescribing a required menu or sequence.
Regular lunar month 1, day 15
Understand the fifteenth-day occasion at the close of the traditional New Year season. Follow the guide for lantern displays, riddles and food names, rather than assuming every event with lanterns is this festival.
The Qingming solar term
Begin with family remembrance, then ask what a particular visit involves. A public heritage activity and a private grave visit are different invitations; the guide explains why belief, timing and participation should not be assumed.
A racing festival and a seventh-evening observance offer different routes into food, craft and stories.
Regular lunar month 5, day 5
Explore zongzi, racing and the stories attached to the occasion. The Singapore heritage example describes varied dumpling traditions and racing beyond the festival itself—not a single practice that everyone must perform.
Regular lunar month 7, day 7
Read the seventh-evening guide alongside its craft and community histories. A lovers’ story is one way in, but the modern Valentine’s Day comparison does not explain every gathering or display.
Distinguish the eighth-month moon from the ninth-month occasion, and ask whose gathering you are joining.
Regular lunar month 8, day 15
Follow the guide from the date to reunion, shared food and moon-viewing. Compare it with Lantern Festival before treating similar objects or foods as proof that the two occasions are the same.
Regular lunar month 9, day 9
Read climbing, chrysanthemums, remembrance and care through their historical and regional settings. An annotated Tang poem and Shitao’s 1705 painting make relationships and evidence limits visible.
Here the seasonal marker, not a fixed lunar day, supplies the calendar anchor.
The winter-solstice solar term
Understand the solstice and family gathering through the guide’s regional examples. Do not use one food name as a universal definition of the occasion or assume that every household holds the same meal.
These fixed 2026 and 2027 teaching examples use China Standard Time (UTC+8), checked against Hong Kong Observatory tables. They are traditional calendar dates, not public-holiday notices or event schedules.
Month 1, day 1 is a Chinese lunisolar date, not January 1. The Gregorian equivalent changes between these examples. Keep the year and calendar name when copying the date; “New Year is in February” is not enough to identify a day.
Lunar year 2026 · regular month 1, day 1
Lunar year 2027 · regular month 1, day 1
Both examples fall on April 5, but their lunar days differ. That is not an error: Qingming follows a solar term rather than the same numbered lunar day. These two years do not establish April 5 as a permanent rule; check the selected year’s astronomical calendar.
Lunar year 2026 · regular month 2, day 18
Lunar year 2027 · regular month 2, day 29
The rule is day 5 of regular lunar month 5. June 19, 2026 and June 9, 2027 are its Gregorian dates in these examples. Entering Gregorian May 5 in a converter asks a different question; choose the lunar-to-Gregorian direction when starting from month 5, day 5.
Lunar year 2026 · regular month 5, day 5
Lunar year 2027 · regular month 5, day 5
Have a different date? Open the Chinese calendar converter. Choose the direction first: a Gregorian date and a numbered lunar date are not interchangeable inputs.
These English examples are practical editorial suggestions. Adapt them to your relationship and the occasion; a private remembrance is not the same invitation as a public celebration.
Confirm the venue, local time, accessibility, food requirements and any booking directly with the organizer. A calendar date alone does not answer those questions.
Read the respectful participation guide4 common questions
Prepared and source-checked October 23, 2026 with AI assistance. Human content review pending. The source check covers the date examples and the specific context listed below. Linked guides retain their own sources and review histories; this is not a new approval of every linked article.
Lunar months, new moons and the combined lunar–solar system.
The three 2026 worked examples, including Qingming’s different lunar day.
The three 2027 worked examples, not a holiday or event schedule.
The UTC+8 reference and astronomical basis of solar terms.
The distinction between lunar festivals and solar-term observances; a 2014 programme, not a current event listing.
Fifth lunar month/day five, varied rice dumplings and community practice in Singapore; not rules for every household.
Found something that needs correction? Read our corrections process or tell us what to check.
