Chinese New Year 2024: The Year of the Wood Dragon

The second New Moon after the Winter Solstice has risen into the sky, signalling that it is time to start celebrating the arrival of the Chinese New Year.

Red and gold lanterns fill the streets, orange trees decorate homes and restaurants, and "Luck" (福) signs are placed on front doors.

But how do we know when it's time to start celebrating Chinese/Lunar New Year in 2024? And which Chinese Zodiac will be ruling over 2024?

Continue reading below to find out. And discover the ancient mythical origins of the Chinese New Year celebrations! 🏮🐲🏮

Chinese New Year Overview

Firstly, let's start with the basics of Chinese New Year.

You may know it as the ‘Lunar New Year’, or ‘Spring Festival’.

This is because many other Asian countries (such as Korea, Vietnam, Japan, etc.) celebrate the New Year using the same Lunisolar Calendar as China.

And share similar celebrations, beliefs, and mythologies/traditions around the same time of year.

Essentially, Lunar New Year is an umbrella term. And Chinese New Year is specific to the celebrations that originate from China.

Chinese New Year traditions consist of:

• Bad luck begone! - giving your home a good tidy up will help you clean out any residual bad luck from the previous year, and will leave room for the good luck to be invited in.
• Paint the home red - get your best red dress on, hang up glowing red lanterns, decorate your sofa with cosy red cushions, buy some red plates to serve red food on. This will help ward away harmful mythical beasts (such as the Nian, which you’ll recognise from Chinese New Year parades), and attract power, success, vitality, and good luck.
• Red Envelopes
• Oodles of Noodles - eating noodles during Chinese New Year is representative of a long and prosperous life, or longevity/resilience in your future endeavours.
• Eat your Oranges - due to the Chinese word for ‘orange’ (Chéngzi) sounding very similar to the Chinese word for ‘success’ (Chénggōng), oranges and other citrus fruits have always been associated with prosperity and good fortune.
• Chinese New Year Festival Celebrations

When is Chinese New Year in 2024?

Instead of using the Western Gregorian Calendar, most Asian countries measure the start of the New Year by using the Lunisolar Calendar which follows the movements of the Moon and Sun as they move across the sky.

This means that Chinese New Year will often take place on different dates each year.

To work out which days Chinese New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and the finale of the Lantern Festival will be:

• Chinese New Year's Eve - is the first New Moon of the Lunisolar Calendar (which would be the second New Moon on the Gregorian Calendar)
• Chinese New Year's Day - is the day after Chinese NYE
• Lantern Festival - is the first Full Moon of the Lunisolar Calendar (which would be the second Full Moon on the Gregorian Calendar)

And in 2024, the Chinese New Year dates will be as follows:

• Chinese New Year's Eve - 9th February 2024
• Chinese New Year's Day - 10th February 2024
• Lantern Festival - 24th February 2024

What is the Chinese Zodiac for 2024?

If you're not already familiar with the mythical story of the Chinese Zodiac, to quickly summarise, the Jade Emperor (an immortal deity in Chinese Mythology) wanted to give his people a way to measure time. To do this he held a race in which 12 different animals competed to have the highest honour of having a year named after them in the order that they win.

Below is the order that each of the Chinese Zodiac animals came in the mythical race:

• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Rabbit
• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat
• Monkey
• Rooster
• Dog
• Pig

Last year in 2023 it was the Year of the Water Rabbit.

And in 2024 it will be the Year of the Wood Dragon. (Don't worry, I'll explain the 'Wood' part in a sec).

So if you were born in 2024, 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964, 1952, 1940... then this is your year!

What does it mean if the Dragon is your Chinese Zodiac?

If you were born in any of the years listed above (as per the Lunisolar calendar, not the Gregorian one), then your Chinese Zodiac is the mythical Dragon. 🐲

In Chinese Mythology, the dragon represents nobility, power, honour, intelligence, and is one of the most coveted zodiacs to be born into (cause Dragons are obvs the coolest of the bunch).

Why is it Year of the Wood Dragon? This is because in Chinese Mythology there are 5 elements: Water, Fire, Wood, Earth, and Gold/Metal. Each time we have a Year of the Dragon, it will be a different element.

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Currently residing in West Sussex, Maddie is a 26 y/o blogger and illustrator with a passion for mythology, legends, fairytales & folklore. You'll regularly find her escaping into fantasy books, films, TV, and games.