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Lunar New Year: The Secret Behind the Beginning of the Lunar New Year
Why does the Lunar New Year celebration last for 15 days every year? The key lies in the fact that this festival is not just a one-day event—it is a period-style celebration that completes a "new cycle" starting from the beginning of the lunar calendar’s first month all the way to the first full moon (Jeongwol Daeboreum). In other words, from the moment the new year’s door opens to the brightest energy of the community at the full moon, the entire period is connected as a flow that celebrates a fresh start with the rhythm of closure → welcome → expansion → peak.
In 2026, the Lunar New Year will begin on February 17th and continue for 15 days, during which people gather with their families to pray for luck, prosperity, and harmony throughout the year. The exchange of red envelopes (sebaetdon/red envelopes filled with blessings), lanterns, and heartfelt short New Year greetings are especially abundant during this time, for the same reason. It’s not just a single celebration, but rather a layering of moments sharing warmth, creating and completing the New Year’s atmosphere.
Another point of interest is that 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse. Traditionally, the horse symbolizes dynamism, speed, and challenge. So when many set their New Year resolutions, they embrace the expectation of a “year of increased movement,” executing postponed plans and renewing rhythms in relationships and daily life. Ultimately, the 15 days of Lunar New Year are not simply a lengthy break, but rather a “time of ritual” for redesigning the new self and realigning life’s direction.
The Year of the Golden Horse 2026 and Lunar New Year: A Special Beginning on February 17
The Lunar New Year starting on February 17, 2026, is more than just a calendar change—it carries the powerful rhythm unique to the lunar new year that resets the tone for the entire year. Known as the Year of the Golden Horse, this year sends a clearer message of “new beginnings,” blending a festive spirit with anticipation for movement, decisiveness, and expansion.
What makes this lunar new year especially captivating is its 15-day-long celebration. It begins with the excitement of Lunar New Year’s Day opening the new year’s door and culminates in the first full moon of the year during the Jeongwol Daeboreum (First Full Moon Festival). Throughout this period, people tidy both their homes and hearts, preparing to welcome luck and peace for the year ahead.
While the festival customs are vibrant, their heart is surprisingly simple: spending time with family and wishing each other fortune and prosperity. These sentiments are concretely expressed through symbols like red envelopes and lanterns. Red is loved for its power to ward off bad luck and invite blessings, while lanterns light up the end of the festival, illuminating wishes for the year and completing the festive atmosphere.
Ultimately, the 2026 lunar new year is more than a “holiday”—it’s a 15-day reset button to reorganize relationships and everyday life. Kicking off on February 17 with the energy of the Year of the Golden Horse, this season becomes the perfect time to set new plans and express your heart to the important people in your life.
The 15-Day Lunar New Year Festival: Its Meaning and Traditions
Red envelopes, lanterns, and vibrant celebratory messages. The lunar new year is not just a single holiday but a 15-day long journey that gradually builds the energy of the new year and unites the hearts of the community. It begins with the New Year’s Day that opens the door to the new year, but reaches its climax and conclusion on the first full moon night, known as Jeongwol Daeboreum (Yuanxiao Festival, Lantern Festival). This structure embodies the flow of “a new beginning → restoration of relationships → completion of abundance and harmony.”
The ‘Promise of Sharing’ Behind Red Envelopes
Red envelopes (hongbao, red envelopes) are more than simple New Year’s money; they symbolize the sharing of blessings for the year ahead. The color red is believed to ward off evil and invite good fortune, so exchanging these envelopes carries the blessing, “May your year be safe and prosperous.” Especially within families, the custom of elders giving envelopes to children, and sometimes to each other, acts as a reaffirmation of family bonds and the responsibility of care.
Lanterns Illuminate ‘A Shared Path’
As the festival nears its end, streets fill with lanterns, their light shining even brighter under the first full moon. Beyond their practical use to brighten the darkness, lanterns symbolize shining a clear path into the new year. Just as individual wishes converge to light up the streets, the lantern tradition showcases how personal hopes create the community’s spirit, forming a virtuous cycle where the warmth of the community supports the individual in return.
Celebratory Messages and Greetings Rewriting ‘Relations’
The greetings and celebratory phrases exchanged during the lunar new year may seem like mere formalities, but they are in fact a vital social language for reorganizing relationships. Through the exchange of New Year’s wishes, people let go of old misunderstandings, express gratitude and well-being, and confirm one another’s welfare. Ultimately, these 15 days serve as an implicit agreement on “how to live together through the year,” leaving a clear message that fortune and prosperity begin with harmonious relationships.
The Significance of the ‘15-Day Duration’
The key point is that the festival lasts not just one day but the full 15 days. The cycle of preparation, visits, sharing, greetings, and closure with lanterns is not about simply ‘welcoming’ the new year at once, but about slowly establishing it. Thus, the lunar new year, while repeated annually, always feels fresh—inhabiting real life with the blessings and harmony of family and society.
The Link Between Individual and Society Found at the Heart of East Asian Tradition: The Lunar New Year Creates a ‘New Year Together’
The lunar new year is not just an event marking the turn of a calendar page. It heralds the beginning of a new cycle, yet unlike many celebrations, its starting point is always placed not on the ‘I’ but on the ‘We,’ showcasing the essence of East Asian tradition. The structure of the 15-day period culminating in the Lantern Festival acts like a mechanism that naturally weaves personal resolutions into the rhythm of the community.
When Personal Renewal Becomes the Language of Community: Lunar New Year
During this time, people quietly set their goals for the year while reconnecting by exchanging greetings and well-wishes with family and neighbors. Notably, red envelopes, lanterns, and congratulatory messages are far more than simple traditional props—they serve as a social signal saying, “Let’s continue to be each other’s support this year.” The moment individual wishes translate into communal language, the New Year becomes stronger than ever.
The Social Stability Created by ‘Celebrating Together’: Lunar New Year
The core of the lunar new year lies in values like luck, prosperity, and harmony extending beyond individual achievement to embrace family and community units. The flow that concludes with the first full moon of the year in the Lantern Festival prevents the excitement of the new beginning from being a one-time burst, turning it instead into a shared climax and closure. Thanks to this, the festival has become a symbolic time across East Asian cultures to recognize not just a “fresh start” but the restoration of relationships and social unity.
Adding Meaning to 2026: Lunar New Year
The 2026 lunar new year begins on February 17 and continues for 15 days. This period expands the personal question of “How should I live this year?” into the collective inquiry, “How will we live together this year?” In East Asian cultures where the way of welcoming the new year reflects an attitude toward life itself, the lunar new year remains the oldest link connecting the individual to society, still working powerfully today.
Lunar New Year: Embracing New Hope Beneath the Full Moon of the New Year
Under the full moon of Jeongwol Daeboreum, the festival reaches its peak. In this moonlight, what hopes and resolutions can we renew? The 15-day journey of the lunar new year does not merely celebrate a spectacular beginning; it is only on the final night that we clearly ask ourselves, "How will we live this new year?"
The full moon symbolizes completeness in a month. Hence, Jeongwol Daeboreum becomes more than just "the arrival of the new year"—it is a time to organize the mindset that will fill the year ahead. The greetings exchanged, the cheers contained in red envelopes, and the wishes carried on lanterns all converge into one message: let’s continue today’s choices toward luck, prosperity, and harmony.
On this night, instead of grand plans, leave yourself with one lasting resolution:
- Commitment to relationships: First ask how others are doing and express your gratitude
- Life’s rhythm: Choose steady progress over excessive desire
- Mental organizing: Tie up unfinished business and create space for a fresh start
Just as a lantern shielded from the wind keeps its flame alive, small acts protect the spirit of the new year. At the moment the full moon shines round and bright, the lunar new year quietly tells us: “A new beginning is not defined by the date, but by the attitude with which we face today.”
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