Guides
Clear guides to Chinese New Year in Singapore: the dates, why they move, the zodiac year, and the customs.
When Is Chinese New Year in Singapore? Dates to 2036 and the Rule Behind Them
Chinese New Year 2027 is Saturday 6 February, 2028 is Wednesday 26 January. The date is not random: it steps back about eleven days a year, then jumps forward about nineteen when a thirteenth lunar month is added. Here are the dates to 2036, the arithmetic, and which of them Singapore has actually gazetted.
Chinese New Year Customs in Singapore: Whose New Year Are You Visiting?
Singapore keeps five Chinese New Year calendars at once. Hokkien households build the season around the ninth day, Teochew households around the seventh, and Cantonese and Hakka households start a week before the eve. How to tell which one you are visiting, and what to do at the door.
The Reunion Dinner: One Night, Two Seatings
The reunion dinner is on Chinese New Year's Eve, which in 2027 is Friday 5 February, a working day. Who sits at the table, why the eve is rationed into fixed seatings, and the five ways Singapore families get around it.
Ang Bao in Singapore: How Much to Give, and Why the Rate Tables Disagree
There is no ang bao market rate in Singapore. Three published 2026 rate guides disagree by more than ten times for the same relative. Here is what actually holds, what varies, and why the crisp-new-notes rule is the one MAS has spent years asking you to drop.
Yusheng and Lo Hei: Who Invented It, and Why No Two Phrase Lists Agree
Singapore and Malaysia both claim yusheng, and both have a case, because they are claiming different things. The toss itself had no author: diners built the script, which is why the phrases differ everywhere you go.
What's Open During Chinese New Year in Singapore?
One rule predicts almost all of it: places with staff on a payroll stay open, places where the owner is the labour close for as long as the owner chose. That is why a supermarket keeps 156 of 168 stores running on day one while the hawker centre next door sits half shut for a week.
Year of the Horse 2026: The Two Dates It Starts On
The Horse year began on 4 February 2026 by the solar reckoning and on 17 February by the lunar one. Both are in use in Singapore, which is why the Li Chun bank queues came first, and why the Goat year that follows on 6 February 2027 contains no start of spring at all.