Fire-breathing dragons and glowing lanterns: welcome the Year of the Dragon in style at the best places to celebrate Lunar New Year in 2024.
The Year of the Dragon is here to bring power, nobility, luck, honour and success to the 2024 Lunar New Year. From 10 February, cities around the world celebrate the new year with street parades, festive decorations, glowing lanterns and dazzling firework displays. It’s a feast for the senses and something worth planning your travel plans around, so you can experience the revelry for yourself.
Find out which cities and countries celebrate Lunar New Year, and how each does it, below.
Which cities celebrate Lunar New Year?
Singapore
The Lion City ushers in the Lunar New Year with a bang with its annual Chingay street parade at the F1 Pit Building on 23 and 24 February. The theme for 2024 is ‘Blossom’, symbolising the coming together of communities, cultures and talents to flourish as one. Expect colourful costumes, juggling acrobats, giant glowing lanterns and mammoth parade floats. Meanwhile, Chinatown will be lit with more than 80,000 LED lights, illuminating the incredible street food markets, and the Marina Bay Floating Platform will be adorned with traditional lantern displays and host vibrant fireworks performances.
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Penang, Malaysia
Kek Lok Si Temple is transformed into a fairytale world of light and colour as the Lunar New Year rolls into Penang, Malaysia. More than 20,000 LED lights and lanterns decorate the building and its gardens. Penang is the heart of the celebrations, coming alive with the peppering of firecrackers, festive pineapple decorations symbolising prosperity for the new year, and fire displays. Ban K Lan Snake Temple is the perfect place to watch as burning fires are encircled by drum performances and dragon dancers. Follow the sweet sound of opera to George Town and witness the district turn into a stage for all the enjoy.
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Bangkok, Thailand
The Thai capital knows how to throw a party, and its Lunar New Year festivities are no exception, starting 10 February. Bangkok’s Chinatown is a treasure trove of bright red paper lanterns, dragon dancers, firecrackers, acrobatic performers and sensational Chinese cuisine. Don your best red outfit and head out to watch the three Thai princesses visit the shrines to pay respect and pray for a fortunate year ahead. Visit ICONSIAM mall to see the immersive digital art installation, “The Magic Dragon”. Spanning 55 metres, the dragon is made of LED lights and represents the power and abundance of the Year of the Dragon.
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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
In Vietnam’s lively city, the Lunar New Year – or Tet – is an extravagant affair and is one of the most important festivals in Vietnam. The new year is all about celebrating with family (preferably over a large, mouthwatering banquet) and starting afresh. If you’re in Ho Chi Minh City during Tet, you’re sure to feel the palpable excitement in the air: parties will pique your interest, vibrant crimson decorations bedazzle the streets, and kitchen doors are flung open, their delicious aromas wafting across the city streets. To get involved, head to a local calligrapher to request a calligraphic design, which is a tradition linked to seeking good health, fortune and prosperity for the new year. Watch as the sky above the city lights up during the midnight fireworks display, and admire the floral street decorations, traditional foods and folk music on show.
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Shanghai, China
Every Chinese New Year, Shanghai’s Yuyuan Gardens become aglow during the Chinese Lantern Festival. This year’s celebrations kick off on 21 January and run until 25 February, allowing nearly one month for people to revel in this magical tradition. Walk under amber lanterns strung across the streets in uniform rows, many of which represent the dragon and the Mountain and Seas mythology that dates back 2,000 years. A little further up in the country’s capital city, Bejing joins the celebrations in a colourful display of fireworks, fairs and traditions. A modern event is the Spring Festival Gala, which draws in thousands of people, plus is broadcast on TV. The gala includes Chinese opera performances, comedy sketches, magic shows, lion dances and acrobatics.
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Hong Kong
Hong Kong is set ablaze with its annual Night Parade taking over the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui from Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza to Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel and Towers. The Chinese New Year party showcases astonishing street floats topped by dazzling performers from around the world. Following the parade, the floats are displayed for all to see from 11 to 25 February at The Urban Council Centenary Garden. The party continues, as Victoria Harbour comes alive with a mammoth fireworks display on 11 February to bring in the new year.
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More Lunar New Year celebrations around the world
Lunar New Year is recognised and celebrated around the world, with events in Sydney, London and New York City also pulling out all the stops with dazzling displays, parades and street parties.
Sydney, Australia
Be a part of Sydney’s Lunar Festival between 10 February to 25 February 2024. Hit the streets of Haymarket to find DJs, lion dancers, market stalls, food trucks and talented performers. Watch the thrilling dragon boat races and catch a glimpse of the dragon-themed jet pack show on Cockle Bay Wharf.
London, United Kingdom
A red dragon carves a path from Charing Cross Road across Trafalgar Square, home to the largest gathering of Chinese lions and dragons in Europe. The showstopping fun doesn’t end there: watch Chinese dancing, martial arts displays, Chinese pop music and the lions' eye-dotting ceremony. Feeling peckish? There are plenty of Chinese street food vendors serving up mouthwatering steamed dumplings, steamed stuffed buns and Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). If you’re around Leicester Square, hit up the family zone for fun-filled arts and crafts, calligraphy lessons and performances.
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New York City, USA
The city of New York transforms during the Lunar New Year festivities, with streets awash in fire-engine red, performers strutting in stunning traditional outfits and firecrackers popping. Catch the famous parade that cuts across Manhattan Bridge on 25 February. In between the lion dancing and firecrackers, head to Chinatown and enjoy a round of karaoke, try the cult-favourite sponge cake from Kam Hing Coffee Shop and dine at Nom Wah Tea Parlor, New York’s first dim sum house which opened in 1920.
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