Chinese New Year in Singapore 2021
The gazetted CNY public holiday dates, the zodiac year, and the fifteen-day festival.
Chinese New Year 2021 in Singapore falls on Friday, 12 February 2021, with the second day on 13 Feb, both gazetted public holidays. 2021 is the Year of the Ox. 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
Friday, 12 February 2021
Chinese New Year
Saturday, 13 February 2021
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.
Friday, 12 February 2021
A working day, so this is a straightforward paid public holiday.
Saturday, 13 February 2021
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.
Run together, that is 3 consecutive days away from work, Friday, 12 February 2021 to Sunday, 14 February 2021. 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.
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 | Thu, 11 Feb |
| 2 | 5 | Wed, 10 Feb · Thu, 11 Feb |
| 3 | 6 | Tue, 9 Feb · Wed, 10 Feb · Thu, 11 Feb |
| 4 | 9 | Mon, 8 Feb · Tue, 9 Feb · Wed, 10 Feb · Thu, 11 Feb |
| 5 | 10 | Fri, 5 Feb · Mon, 8 Feb · Tue, 9 Feb · Wed, 10 Feb · Thu, 11 Feb |
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 2021
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
Thursday, 11 February 2021
Reunion dinner. Not a public holiday.
First day
Friday, 12 February 2021
Gazetted public holiday. Visiting begins.
Second day
Saturday, 13 February 2021
Gazetted public holiday. Kainian.
Third day
Sunday, 14 February 2021
Red Mouth Day. Visits are traditionally avoided.
Fourth day
Monday, 15 February 2021
Most Chinese businesses reopen.
Seventh day
Thursday, 18 February 2021
Renri. The yusheng day.
Ninth day
Saturday, 20 February 2021
Bai Tian Gong, the Hokkien new year.
Fifteenth day
Friday, 26 February 2021
Chap Goh Mei. The festival closes.
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 2021 in Singapore?
Chinese New Year 2021 falls on Friday, 12 February 2021. The first two days are gazetted public holidays. 2021 is the Year of the Ox.
What zodiac year is 2021?
2021 is the Year of the Ox 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.