Chinese New Year, Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese culture and Asian countries within Sinosphere, the festival is also commonly referred to as Spring Festival as the spring season in the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Lunar New Year. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season, observances traditionally take place from New Year’s Eve, the evening preceding the first day of the year to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.
Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in China, and has strongly influenced Lunar New Year celebrations such as the Losar of Tibet, and of China's neighbouring cultures, including the Korean New Year, and the of Vietnam. It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries that house significant Overseas Chinese or Sinophone populations, including Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Mauritius, and Canada as well as in North America and Europe.
The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines the date of Chinese New Year. The calendar is also used in countries that have been influenced by, or have relations with, China – such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam, though occasionally the date celebrated may differ by one day or even one moon cycle due to using a meridian based on a different capital city in a different time zone or different placements of intercalary months. The Chinese calendar defines the lunar month containing the winter solstice as the eleventh month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice . In more than 96 percent of the years, Chinese New Year's Day is the closest date to a new moon to lichun on 4 or 5 February, and the first new moon after dahan . In the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese New Year begins at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February.