Lunar New Year party ideas
for a table full of dumplings and good wishes.

What Lunar New Year is, and who celebrates it

Lunar New Year marks the start of the year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, so the date moves between late January and mid-February. It is celebrated in China, Korea, Vietnam and by communities across Southeast Asia and the world, each with its own name, foods and customs. "Lunar New Year" is the safe umbrella term; with a guest, use the name they use for their own holiday.

Chinese Spring Festival (Chūn Jié)

The most important meal is the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, when relatives travel long distances to eat together. Homes are cleaned in the days before, then decorated with red couplets and paper cuts. Elders and married couples give children red envelopes of money, called hongbao in Mandarin and lai see in Cantonese. Dumplings are a New Year staple, especially in northern China, and the festivities traditionally last until the Lantern Festival on the 15th day.

Korean Seollal

Many families begin Seollal with an ancestral memorial rite, then younger relatives perform sebae, a deep bow to their elders, who answer with words of blessing and New Year money called sebaetdon. The essential dish is tteokguk, a clear soup of sliced rice cakes; under Korea's traditional age-counting system, everyone turned a year older at the new year, and eating tteokguk was said to mark it. Many families play yutnori, a stick-throwing board game.

Vietnamese Tết

Tết Nguyên Đán is the most important holiday of the Vietnamese year. Families prepare bánh chưng, a square cake of sticky rice, mung beans and pork wrapped in leaves (its square shape is traditionally linked to the earth), or the cylindrical bánh tét in the south. Children receive lì xì, lucky money in red envelopes, and homes fill with peach blossoms in the north and yellow apricot blossoms in the south.

2027: the Year of the Goat

The zodiac animal for 2027 is written 羊 (yáng) in Chinese, a word that covers goats, sheep and rams,, so English sources say goat, sheep or ram. Vietnam's zodiac uses the goat. In the element cycle, 2027 is a Fire Goat year; the last one was 1967.

Hosting a Lunar New Year dinner at home

New Year's Eve 2027 is Friday, February 5, and that night belongs to families, so friends who celebrate may have plans. The weekend of February 6 and 7, or Saturday, February 13, still falls inside the 15-day season, which closes with the Lantern Festival on Saturday, February 20.

A lucky-food menu for 8 to 10 guests

Many New Year dishes carry a wish, often through wordplay. Quantities assume dumplings are the main event and everything else is shared family-style.

• Dumplings (jiaozi): 12 to 15 per adult, so 120 to 150 for ten. That takes about 2½ pounds of pork, a napa cabbage and three 50-packs of wrappers. Their shape is often compared to old gold and silver ingots, a wish for prosperity.
• Whole steamed fish: two fish of 1½ to 2 pounds each, with ginger and scallion. The Mandarin word for fish, yú, sounds like the word for surplus, and some families leave a little uneaten for that reason.
• Long noodles: 1½ to 2 pounds, stir-fried. Long noodles stand for long life, so cooks avoid cutting them.
• Spring rolls: two per person, 20 to 24, baked or fried. Golden, for wealth.
• Greens: 3 to 4 pounds of bok choy or Chinese broccoli with garlic.
• Tteokguk: if a guest has Korean roots, a pot made with about 3 pounds of sliced rice cakes serves ten, and their family recipe is the best guide.
• Bánh chưng: traditionally simmered for many hours, so most hosts buy one from a Vietnamese bakery or grocery.
• Tangerines and oranges: a bowl of 25 or more. In Chinese, their names sound like luck and success.
• Something sweet: nián gāo, a sticky rice cake whose name sounds like "higher each year", or tangyuan, sweet rice balls often served at the Lantern Festival.
• Drinks: jasmine or oolong tea all evening.

Label shellfish, sesame, peanuts and wheat (in the wrappers), and make one filling vegetarian. For a bigger crowd, use the Potluck Iron Chef sign-up system; see dinner party ideas for seating.

The dumpling-folding party

Folding dumplings together is the centerpiece: everyone has a job, conversation flows, and dinner is the reward. If a friend grew up folding them, ask whether they'd like to teach; first dumplings always look lumpy, and that is half the fun.

1. Make the filling the day before: pork, finely chopped cabbage squeezed dry, ginger, scallion, soy sauce and sesame oil. Add a vegetarian bowl of tofu, shiitake and glass noodles.
2. Set up stations: filling, a bowl of water, wrappers under a damp towel, and flour-dusted sheet pans.
3. Teach two folds: the simple pressed half-moon for beginners and the pleated crescent for a challenge.
4. Cook in batches of about 20: boil fresh dumplings until they float and the filling is cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes, or pan-fry them as potstickers with a splash of water and a lid.
5. Serve and share: black vinegar with ginger and soy with chili oil for dipping; freeze extras on a tray and send guests home with a dozen.

Some families hide a clean coin in one dumpling for luck; if you do, tell everyone, and skip it with small children.

Lunar New Year activities for kids

Set up a craft table while adults fold. Each takes 15 to 30 minutes, from about age 4.

• Paper lanterns: fold a sheet of red construction paper in half lengthwise, cut slits from the fold to an inch from the edge, unfold, roll into a tube and tape it, then add a paper handle and gold marker details.
• Paper cutting: Chinese "window flowers" (chuāng huā) are cut from red paper with wishes for the year; kids fold squares and cut along the folds. Older kids can try the character 福 (fú, good fortune), which many Chinese homes hang upside down because "upside down" sounds like "arrived".
• Red envelope crafts: fold envelopes from red paper, decorate them with gold pens, and fill them with chocolate coins or a written wish for someone at the party. Explain that it carries a blessing and is given with both hands.
• Zodiac storytelling: tell the story of the great race, in which twelve animals race to set the order of the zodiac, and let kids act it out. Kids born in January or February should check the lunar date to find their animal.
• New Year greetings: learn four New Year greetings: "Xīnnián kuàilè" (Mandarin, "happy new year"), "Gung hei fat choy" (Cantonese, "wishing you prosperity"), "Saehae bok mani badeuseyo" (Korean, "receive many blessings in the new year") and "Chúc mừng năm mới" (Vietnamese, "happy new year"). Let a guest who speaks one teach it.

More craft-table ideas by age are in kids party ideas.

Lunar New Year games for adults and families

• Yutnori: 4 to 12 players in two teams, 30 minutes. Throw four wooden sticks; the way they land moves your pieces one to five spaces around the board, with shortcuts across the middle. Sets are sold at Korean grocery stores and online.
• Bầu cua cá cọp: 3 to 10 players, 20 minutes. A Vietnamese dice game played at Tết with three dice showing six pictures: gourd, crab, fish, rooster, shrimp and deer. Play for wrapped candy so kids can join.
• Lantern riddles: any number, 20 minutes. Riddles hung on lanterns are a Lantern Festival custom; guests tape them to paper lanterns for others to solve.
• Mahjong or card games: common after dinner; if a guest offers to teach mahjong, give them a quiet table.

For more seated games, see party game ideas.

Lunar New Year decorations: red, gold and what they mean

Red stands for luck and joy, and gold for wealth. A popular folk story tells of a beast called Nian that was frightened away by red, firecrackers and light, one reason red is everywhere at New Year.

• Spring couplets: paired lines of good wishes on red paper, hung on either side of a door in Chinese homes. Buy printed ones rather than inventing characters.
• Paper cuts and the fú character: on windows and the front door.
• Blossoms: plum blossoms are a Chinese favorite; in Vietnam, peach blossoms in the north and yellow apricot blossoms in the south.
• Lanterns and tangerines: red lanterns over the table and a bowl of leafy tangerines, decoration and dessert at once.

Skip mostly white or black decor (both are linked with mourning in several of these cultures), and skip conical hats, "fortune cookie" props and anything that turns a culture into a costume. A qipao, hanbok or áo dài is lovely when it is your heritage or a friend has invited you; it is not a dress-up theme. More in party decoration ideas.

A classroom or office version

Classroom (45 minutes): the zodiac race story, paper lanterns, greetings in several languages, and tangerines if food rules allow. Invite families who celebrate to share a custom if they wish, but never put one child on the spot as the class expert.

Office: a team lunch from a local Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese restaurant, or a dumpling-folding lunch. Mention Seollal and Tết as well as Spring Festival, and avoid big deadlines that week, since colleagues who celebrate may be traveling.

Lunar New Year party timeline

• Three weeks out (mid-January): choose a date that does not clash with New Year's Eve family dinners, and ask a friend who celebrates whether they'd like to co-host.
• Two weeks out: send invitations, collect dietary needs, and shop an Asian grocery for wrappers, rice cakes, black vinegar, tea and red envelopes.
• One week out: buy craft supplies and decorations; order bánh chưng or fish.
• One or two days before: clean the house, a custom in its own right; many families avoid sweeping on New Year's Day so they don't sweep away good luck. Make the filling.
• The day, 5:00pm: guests arrive to tea, tangerines and the craft table.
• 5:30pm: dumpling folding.
• 6:30pm: dinner, family-style.
• 7:30pm: red envelopes for kids, then yutnori, bầu cua or lantern riddles.
• 8:30pm: something sweet, more tea, and dumplings to take home.

Etiquette tips if you don't celebrate

• Ask, then follow: customs vary between countries, regions and families. A friend who celebrates is the best guide; offer to cover ingredients if they lead, and don't press if they're busy.
• Gifts to avoid: clocks, because "giving a clock" sounds like attending a funeral in Mandarin; shoes; and sets of four, since the word for four sounds like "death" in Chinese and Vietnamese. Many people also avoid sharp objects such as knives and scissors, which suggest cutting ties.
• Good gifts: a bag of tangerines or oranges, good tea, or a box of sweets, wrapped in red or gold rather than white or black.
• Red envelopes: use crisp new bills, avoid amounts containing a 4, and give with both hands. Many families prefer even amounts, and recipients often wait to open them in private.

Nearby on the calendar: Super Bowl party ideas, Galentine's party ideas and all seasonal party ideas.