Chinese New Year in Singapore 2020
The gazetted CNY public holiday dates, the zodiac year, and the fifteen-day festival.
Chinese New Year 2020 in Singapore falls on Saturday, 25 January 2020, with the second day on 26 Jan, both gazetted public holidays. 2020 is the Year of the Rat. A birthday that falls before Chinese New Year belongs to the previous animal, so a birth year on its own does not settle it. The zodiac calculator works from the full date.
Chinese New Year
Saturday, 25 January 2020
Chinese New Year
Sunday, 26 January 2020
Chinese New Year (Observed)
Monday, 27 January 2020
What these dates mean for your days off
The gazette gives you the dates. Whether each one turns into a day you are not at work depends on the weekday it lands on, and Singapore does not treat a Saturday and a Sunday the same way.
Saturday, 25 January 2020
A Saturday. On a five-day week that is a non-working day, not a rest day, and the two are handled differently. Per MOM, a public holiday on a non-working day gets you another day off or one extra day's salary at the gross rate. The rule does not say which of the two you get, so a Saturday holiday does not automatically become a day off.
Sunday, 26 January 2020
A Sunday, which is the rest day on a standard five-day week. Per MOM, the following working day becomes the paid public holiday instead.
Monday, 27 January 2020
The day in lieu, gazetted under its own name so it shows up as a separate public holiday.
Run together, that is 3 consecutive days away from work, Saturday, 25 January 2020 to Monday, 27 January 2020. One of the two gazetted days falls on a Saturday. On a five-day week that is a day you were not working anyway, and unlike a Sunday it is not substituted with another public holiday, so this is a thinner year than one where Chinese New Year lands midweek.
Two official sources describe this day differently, and the difference is worth knowing. Section 4(2) of the Holidays Act 1998 declares the day after a Sunday public holiday to be a public holiday, full stop, and the gazette dataset lists Monday, 27 January 2020 that way. MOM states it as an employment entitlement instead: Monday, 27 January 2020 is a public holiday if your rest day falls on Sunday, 26 January 2020. On a standard five-day week Sunday is the rest day, so for most office employees the day holds either way. If you work a shift roster, or your rest day is some other day, confirm it with your employer before you book anything around it.
The cheapest way to stretch it
Annual leave booked either side of the block, and what each day of it actually buys. Days off counts calendar days away from work, not working days.
| Leave | Days off | Book these |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Fri, 24 Jan |
| 2 | 5 | Thu, 23 Jan · Fri, 24 Jan |
| 3 | 6 | Wed, 22 Jan · Thu, 23 Jan · Fri, 24 Jan |
| 4 | 9 | Tue, 28 Jan · Wed, 29 Jan · Thu, 30 Jan · Fri, 31 Jan |
| 5 | 10 | Mon, 20 Jan · Tue, 21 Jan · Wed, 22 Jan · Thu, 23 Jan · Fri, 24 Jan |
The reunion dinner is on the eve, and the eve is never a public holiday. If you are only taking one day, that is usually the day to take.
The festival calendar for 2020
The two days off are the first two of fifteen. These are the dates of the days people here actually keep, counted from the first day.
Chinese New Year's Eve
Friday, 24 January 2020
Reunion dinner. Not a public holiday.
First day
Saturday, 25 January 2020
Gazetted public holiday. Visiting begins.
Second day
Sunday, 26 January 2020
Gazetted public holiday. Kainian.
Third day
Monday, 27 January 2020
Red Mouth Day. Visits are traditionally avoided.
Fourth day
Tuesday, 28 January 2020
Most Chinese businesses reopen.
Seventh day
Friday, 31 January 2020
Renri. The yusheng day.
Ninth day
Sunday, 2 February 2020
Bai Tian Gong, the Hokkien new year.
Fifteenth day
Saturday, 8 February 2020
Chap Goh Mei. The festival closes.
Worth noticing for 2020: the day in lieu lands on the third day, Red Mouth Day, the one day of the fifteen that households traditionally keep clear of visits. The extra day off is real. The visiting it buys you is not.
What each of these days is for →Customs and traditions
Reunion dinner
The reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve is the most important meal of the year: families gather, often travelling home, over dishes like fish (for surplus, 年年有余) and other auspicious food.
Ang bao (red packets)
Married couples and elders give ang bao, red packets of money, to children and unmarried juniors. Amounts are even (never 4), and crisp new notes are preferred; red symbolises good fortune.
Yusheng (lo hei)
Yusheng, a raw-fish and shredded-vegetable salad, is tossed as high as possible together (lo hei) while calling out auspicious phrases. It's a Singaporean-Malaysian Chinese New Year custom for prosperity.
Visiting
Over the first days, families visit relatives and friends, bringing mandarin oranges in pairs. Many hawker stalls and small shops close for several days, while malls, attractions and public transport run as normal.
Common questions
When is Chinese New Year 2020 in Singapore?
Chinese New Year 2020 falls on Saturday, 25 January 2020. The first two days are gazetted public holidays. 2020 is the Year of the Rat.
What zodiac year is 2020?
2020 is the Year of the Rat in the twelve-animal Chinese zodiac cycle.
How many days of Chinese New Year are a public holiday?
Two. Singapore gazettes the first two days of Chinese New Year as public holidays. The wider festival runs for fifteen days.
Why does the Chinese New Year date change each year?
Chinese New Year follows the lunisolar Chinese calendar, so it falls on a different Gregorian date each year, always between 21 January and 20 February.
Sources
- Public holidays and public holiday entitlement and pay, Ministry of Manpower.
- Holidays Act 1998, section 4, for the Sunday substitution rule.
- The gazetted public holiday dataset, Government of Singapore, via data.gov.sg.
- Chinese New Year, Culturepaedia, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, for the festival days.
Dates are the gazetted public-holiday dates from data.gov.sg.