Lunar New Year celebrations are planned around the Chinese calendar, with 16 days of festivities around December/January each year. In 2023, the Lunar New Year falls on 23 January, which marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit. Lantern Festivals will conclude the celebrations on 5 February 2023.
Celebrating Lunar New Year by planning a local event is a great way to showcase your region’s East and Southeast Asian communities and their cultures. We’ve put together some thoughts and ideas to inspire your holiday celebrations and get the Lunar New Year started right.
How is Lunar New Year celebrated?
The Lunar New Year is associated with a vast range of cultural lore and traditions, including gathering for reunion dinners on New Year’s Eve, lighting firecrackers, and exchanging red envelopes with money enclosed. No matter what, a typical Lunar New Year celebration is all about coming together with loved ones and looking forward to a bright year ahead.
Celebrations for the Lunar New Year vary widely across China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. While the celebrations are all based on time-honoured traditions, each has its unique cultural take.
Host a Lunar New Year cultural showcase
With traditions that stretch back thousands of years, Chinese culture offers rich opportunities for inspirational and educational showcases and workshops. Consider a calligraphy demonstration, a seminar on Confucius or Han Buddhism, or a showcase of martial arts such as kung fu.
Collaborate with a local Chinese cultural organisation when doing your Chinese New Year event planning. This partnership will help you reach out to your local community and provide cultural groups with a platform to showcase their heritage. Incorporating an art or craft market can expand your audience, help support local artists and craftspeople, and introduce them to new customers.
Plan a feast with Asian cuisine
Celebrate the Lunar New Year with a festive meal featuring traditional dishes. For example, in Chinese culture, dumplings symbolise wealth and pork represents strength. Because China and East Asia encompass a vast geographical region, you can offer an array of flavours, textures, and ingredients.
Consider inviting local restaurants or chefs to be part of a street food pop-up event or tasting festival. Include finger foods and easy-to-hold offerings from across the region, such as Chinese pork dumplings, gio or cha (Vietnamese sausage), and tteok-bokki (spicy Korean rice cakes).
Organise a colourful New Year festival
What better way to celebrate culture than with a festival? Consult local authorities about setting a street parade route – and be sure to get any necessary permits for giant dancing dragons! Incorporate performances, art, and potentially a market aspect so attendees can explore the diverse facets of Chinese culture.
Celebrate Eastern culture with workshops and classes
Host a workshop centred around Chinese arts or heritage. Crafting events are family-friendly, and you can offer slightly different projects for adults and children to entice a larger audience.
Chinese and East Asian cultures have many beautiful and distinctive arts and crafts to discover. Workshops on calligraphy, painting, lantern-making, paper folding, mah-jong and tai chi require minimal materials while offering unique engagement. Set your sound system to play Chinese opera or konghou (an ancient stringed instrument) music to set the mood.
At Eden Gardens in Macquarie Park, NSW, a Green Scroll Workshop is the perfect Chinese New Year event. With Eden Unearthed’s artist, Jayanto Tan, attendees will discover the magic of pandan liquid on special rice paper to create a masterpiece paper-scroll wall decoration.
Mark the New Year with performances
Chinese opera is famous for its elaborate costumes and makeup, so a Chinese opera performance will add colour and flair to your event. Traditional dragon and lion dances, with their flowing banners and large masks, are also favourites during Lunar New Year celebrations. Chinese monks invented gunpowder and made the first fireworks, so end the night with a pyrotechnics display.
Use demos to get attendees cooking
Why not teach people about a new cuisine with a cooking masterclass or workshop?
Consider working with a local chef specialising in Chinese or East Asian cuisine to demonstrate proper techniques and discuss ideal ingredients. Incorporate information about what the dish symbolises as part of your workshop. Cooking classes make great online cultural events; you can send attendees the ingredients list ahead of time and have them follow the presenter via Zoom or your preferred streaming platform.
Ready to host a Lunar New Year celebration?
Now that you’ve got plenty of Lunar New Year party ideas, sign up for Eventbrite and create a page for your event. With a wide array of tools and features at your fingertips, Eventbrite can help you market your event on social media, send emails to potential attendees, and sell tickets.
