About Lunar New Year
The Lunar New Year — Chunjie in Mandarin, Tết in Vietnamese, Seollal in Korean, Losar in Tibetan — opens the lunisolar calendar at the second new moon after the winter solstice. Each year is associated with one of the twelve zodiac animals on a sixty-year cycle that pairs animal with element. The festival's popular legend tells of Nian, a beast that emerged each new year to devour villagers until the elders learned it feared loud noise and the colour red — the origin, the story goes, of firecrackers and red door couplets.
For a deeper historical treatment, see Lunar New Year — Wikipedia.
The fifteen days each have their own character: the eve (Chuxi) for reunion dinner, the first day for visiting elders, the fifth for welcoming the god of wealth, the fifteenth for the Lantern Festival that closes the season. Red envelopes (hongbao / lì xì / sebaetdon) carrying small cash gifts pass from older to younger; door couplets (chunlian) and upside-down 'fu' characters are pasted at every threshold; dumplings shaped like ancient gold ingots are eaten in the north and nián gāo (sticky cake) in the south.
Traditional greetings
The phrases below are the ones most often used to mark Lunar New Year in person, by phone, and on cards. The native-script column shows the greeting as a recipient would read it; the transliteration is for those who would like to say it aloud; the English column is a literal rather than a poetic translation.
| Language | Greeting | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin | 新年快乐 | Xīn nián kuài lè | Happy New Year |
| Mandarin | 恭喜发财 | Gōng xǐ fā cái | Wishing you wealth and prosperity |
| Cantonese | 恭喜發財 | Gung hei fat choi | Wishing you wealth and prosperity |
| Cantonese | 新年快樂 | San nin faai lok | Happy New Year |
| Vietnamese | Chúc mừng năm mới | Happy New Year | |
| Korean | 새해 복 많이 받으세요 | Saehae bok mani badeuseyo | May you receive much new-year blessing |
| Tibetan | ལོ་གསར་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས། | Losar Tashi Delek | Auspicious Losar |
Design tips for printable Lunar New Year cards
Hand-printed cards for Lunar New Year reward restraint and specific reference. The notes below distil what the most thoughtful cards in the tradition tend to do — and what the most commercial ones tend to get wrong.
- Red and gold are non-negotiable on the cover — but the way you balance them reveals taste. Use the gold sparingly.
- Paper-cut motifs (jianzhi) of the year's zodiac animal are the most editorial way to mark the year.
- Reverse the character 福 (fu) deliberately — an upside-down fu reads as "fortune has arrived" in Mandarin homophone play.
- Vietnamese Tết cards lean toward apricot blossom (yellow); Korean Seollal cards lean toward pastel hanbok colours; Tibetan Losar toward turquoise and saffron.
- Include a small folded pocket inside for a hongbao — most families post or hand the card and the envelope together.
A starting palette:
Five verses for Lunar New Year cards
Each verse below is short enough to copy onto a folded card by hand. They progress from formal to intimate; pick the one that best fits the relationship and the year you are writing into.
- May the year of the [zodiac] be longer at the joyful end and shorter at the hard one. Xīn nián kuài lè.
- From our table to yours, dumplings in the north, nián gāo in the south, and the same wish at the centre — gōng xǐ fā cái.
- Saehae bok mani badeuseyo — may this new year be the kind of year you tell stories about for the next sixty.
- Chúc mừng năm mới — may your apricot tree bloom on time, and may every guest find your door open.
- Losar Tashi Delek. May the prayer flags hold, the butter lamps stay lit, and the year favour the patient.
Related cultural holidays
Other holidays observed in the East Asia & Pacific family of traditions: