Lunar New Year Celebrations

Where:	Countrywide especially in cities with a sizeable population of Asian heritage
When:	Sunday nearest Lunar New Year(late January to late February)
Time:	All day (Newcastle event 11am-4pm)

Many major cities in the UK celebrate Lunar New Year, including Newcastle upon Tyne which is my nearest venue. The name has recently been commonly amended from Chinese New Year as the festival is more widely celebrated than just in China. Expect firecrackers, Lion and Dragon dances, music,parades, lanterns and seasonal foods. The dragons bring prosperity for the coming year; the way they move echoes the movement of the river spirit as it rises , falls and undulates and the origins of the dance lie in a fertility rite for the harvest. Noodles symbolise long life, so don’t cut them; spring rolls represent wealth and oranges and lettuce are for luck. Another popular speciality is the tea-egg, a hard-boiled egg which has the shell cracked all over before it is soaked in tea which dyes the egg giving it a mottled appearance. In Newcastle the celebrations are usually on the nearest Sunday from 11 am and the crowds are huge. Wear red for luck and to ward off evil spirits!

Helpful Hints

Popular with families as it’s at the weekend and there’s plenty to see! Get there early if you want a decent view.

In 2025 Lunar New Year falls on Wednesday 29th January. The Newcastle celebrations should take place, in Stowell Street, by the Chinese Arch, and nearby locations on Sunday 26th January or 2nd February (yet to be confirmed).

Click here for the Chinatown Newcastle Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/newcastlechinatown/?hc_location=ufi

For more info click here : http://www.theholidayspot.com/chinese_new_year/

View this location on the map.

Austin King

Posted April 13, 2012 at 9:03 PM

G’Day! Calendarcustoms,
Along the same lines, Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival and is the oldest and most important festival to the Chinese community. The actual date of the holiday is determined by the lunar calendar and because of this cycle, it varies around late January to mid-February.
Wishes

Paula Gerrard

Posted February 11, 2013 at 9:38 AM

I went to see the Chinese New Year celebrated in London yesterday. Trafalgar Square had been taken over for the festivities; there was a stage, stalls, masses of lanterns, and some fantastic Chinese performers. Chinatown is a few minutes walk away, and it was buzzing too. I could hear the dragon dances, but couldn’t get close enough to watch. It was a briliant day – but cold…

Caroline Whitaker

Posted December 31, 2014 at 3:59 PM

Thank you for actually printing the date for the Newcastle festivities – yours is the only website that I found that actually listed the date. Thanks Averil 🙂 Hopefully my little girl will be going along again this year to be scared by dragons and eat Chinese with her dad.


Averil

Posted January 1, 2015 at 4:48 PM

Thanks Caroline! It took some hunting out even though I saw the date printed on the back of a printed brochure about the winter festivities in town at a friend’s house in early November – why it’s been so hard to find online, I can’t imagine as obviously people knew long ago. It’s a great day out – ‘specially when the dragons and lions start hurling lettuce around!!
Averil