Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year? The Renaming Campaign

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, marks the beginning of the new year in the Chinese lunisolar calendar. A reasonable naming principle is this: when referring to the traditional New Year celebrated by Chinese communities, use “Chinese New Year”; when discussing these New Year celebrations across cultures, use the calendrically more precise “Lunisolar New Year.”

Lunar or Lunisolar?

An example of a purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar. Calling Chinese New Year or Lunisolar New Year “Lunar New Year” is incorrect, fails to respect the cultural diversity of the peoples who use these two types of calendar, and demonstrates insufficient understanding of the festival.

Organized Renaming Campaigns

The naming dispute has also involved organized efforts: South Korea’s VANK launched a renaming campaign in 2019 and initiated a petition in 2020 seeking changes to relevant United Nations terminology. Google Trends data also show that search interest in “Lunar New Year” rose sharply in 2020 and remained elevated in the following years. This pattern shows a clear anomaly visible to the naked eye.

Worldwide Google Trends interest in the “Chinese New Year” (blue) and “Lunar New Year” (red) topics, 2004–2026. The red line shows more pronounced annual peaks from 2020 onward.

Related Celebrations in Korea and Vietnam

Lunisolar New Year celebrations vary across cultures, with different names and customs in countries such as Korea and Vietnam. Korea’s Seollal is also known as “Sesu.” Sesu comes from the Chinese term “岁首,” meaning “the first day of the year”; Vietnam’s Tết Nguyên Đán comes from the Chinese terms “节” and “元旦,” meaning “festival” and “the first day of the year,” respectively. Although the Korean and Vietnamese New Year celebrations follow a calendar invented in China, their customs do differ. Because different standard times are used, the Gregorian dates corresponding to the first day of the first month can also differ by one day in certain years.

Why Names Matter

Names matter because they shape how people think. “Chinese New Year” identifies the traditional New Year celebrated by Chinese communities, while “Lunisolar New Year” makes the calendrical basis clear when discussing related celebrations across cultures. Inaccurate naming can lead to mistaken beliefs and misguided actions. Whatever the motive, a shared celebration should bring people together, not become a battleground.

References

• UNESCO. Spring Festival, Social Practices of the Chinese People in Celebration of Traditional New Year.
• Smithsonian, National Museum of American History. Celebrating Chinese New Year.
• Hong Kong Observatory. The Chinese Calendar (農曆曆法).
• U.S. Naval Observatory. Introduction to Calendars.
• Cambridge Dictionary. Lunar New Year.
• VANK. 2019 PRKOREA Project Results and Financial Report.
• VANK, May We Speak. The United Nations Should Reflect on Its Ignorance Towards the Diversity of Asian Culture!.
• Google Trends. Worldwide search-interest comparison of “Chinese New Year” and “Lunar New Year,” January 2004–September 2026. Author-provided CSV export, October 4, 2026. Methodology: FAQ About Google Trends Data.
• Academy of Korean Studies, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Seol (설).
• Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The Origins and Meaning of Tết (Nguồn gốc và ý nghĩa Tết).
• Hong Kong Observatory. Which Day Is the Tuen Ng Festival for This Year (2013)?.