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Chinese New Year 2026 in the United States

When is Chinese New Year 2026?

Chinese New Year 2026 falls on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. It was 189 days ago.

Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, falls on a different Gregorian date each year between January 21 and February 20. In the United States it is a civic observance, not a federal public holiday.

Opens the year in Chinese tradition — red envelopes, reunion dinners, lion dances in Chinatowns from San Francisco to New York. The Gregorian date shifts because the holiday follows the lunar calendar, not January 1.

What typically stops

National picture for four named services. A local branch, a retailer or a private employer can still differ — this is not a store-by-store matrix.

Whether banks, USPS, Fedwire and the NYSE typically close for Chinese New Year
Service Typically Source
Banks (Federal Reserve) Open — Typically a normal banking day. Not a Federal Reserve holiday. Federal Reserve Banks — Holiday Schedule (K.8)
USPS Open — Typically regular delivery and retail hours. USPS Employee and Labor Relations Manual — Holiday Leave (518)
Fedwire Open — Typically operates. Not a Federal Reserve holiday. Federal Reserve Banks — Holiday Schedule (K.8)
NYSE Open — Typically a full trading session. NYSE — Trading Hours and Holiday Calendar

Print and calendar feed

Is Chinese New Year a public holiday?

No at federal level. It is not listed in 5 U.S.C. § 6103. Federal offices, Federal Reserve Banks, USPS and the NYSE typically operate a normal schedule.

Some US cities and school districts observe it locally. That is not a national closure and is not claimed here.

What day is Chinese New Year?

The date is the first day of the first Chinese lunisolar month. There is no Gregorian weekday rule, so this site looks up each year from a sourced table rather than inventing an astronomical engine.

The table on this page covers the years needed for the published window and the eleven-year observances span. Years outside that table are not guessed.

Chinese New Year dates, 2021–2031

Chinese New Year in the United States, by year
Year Weekday Date Observed Type
2021 Friday February 12, 2021 — Not A Public Holiday
2022 Tuesday February 1, 2022 — Not A Public Holiday
2023 Sunday January 22, 2023 — Not A Public Holiday
2024 Saturday February 10, 2024 — Not A Public Holiday
2025 Wednesday January 29, 2025 — Not A Public Holiday
2026 Tuesday February 17, 2026 — Not A Public Holiday
2027 Saturday February 6, 2027 — Not A Public Holiday
2028 Wednesday January 26, 2028 — Not A Public Holiday
2029 Tuesday February 13, 2029 — Not A Public Holiday
2030 Sunday February 3, 2030 — Not A Public Holiday
2031 Thursday January 23, 2031 — Not A Public Holiday

Dates in this table are looked up from a sourced year-by-year list — the first day of the first month in the chinese lunisolar calendar (dates looked up by year) — because there is no Gregorian weekday rule. Years outside the table are not shown as links.

Other names and languages

Also called
Lunar New Year, Spring Festival
Chinese
春节 / 農曆新年

Legal basis and sources

Chinese New Year is not listed in 5 U.S.C. § 6103. It is not a legal public holiday of the United States. 5 U.S.C. § 6103

More holidays