January 2026 almanac

January 1–31, 2026 runs from Month 11, day 13 to Month 12, day 13 of the Chinese year Yi-Si. Solar terms this month: Minor Cold, Major Cold. Festivals: Laba Festival. Select a date to open it in the calendar with the full almanac, lucky hours and moon phase.

Lunar dates

Month 11, day 13 – Month 12, day 13

Month pillar

Wu-Zi / Ji-Chou

Solar terms

Minor Cold, Major Cold

Auspicious days

16 days

January: Minor Cold, Major Cold and the end of the lunar year

Two solar terms begin in January: Minor Cold around 5 or 6 January and Major Cold around 20 or 21 January. They are the last two of the twenty-four terms and cover the coldest stretch of the year. Northern China is dry and bitterly cold, with many rivers and lakes frozen. Southern China and Hong Kong feel the dry northeast monsoon, with sharp drops when a cold surge arrives. In Taiwan, cold fronts bring chilly, damp weather to the north and northeast and occasional snow on the high mountains.

New Year's Day on 1 January is a holiday in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. The twelfth lunar month, known as the Layue, usually overlaps January, so the Laba Festival and its eight-treasure porridge normally fall this month, occasionally in late December. Weiya, the year-end feast on the sixteenth day of the twelfth month, usually lands between mid-January and early February. Around the 24th of the month families see off the Kitchen God and clean the house; in some years Lunar New Year itself arrives in late January.

Many people hope to marry or move house before the lunar year ends, so almanac pages listing days favourable for weddings and moving are much consulted. Warming dishes dominate: hot pot in the north, cured-meat claypot rice in Guangdong, and ginger duck or mutton stew in Taiwan. Traditional wellness advice stresses keeping warm and sleeping early. Farmland in the north lies fallow, while southern Taiwan begins preparing seedlings for the first rice crop.

Solar terms and moon phases

Times are in UTC+8.

Festivals, deity birthdays and holidays

Key day spirits this month

Click a date for that day’s full list of spirits. Day spirits ›

Good days at a glance

Rated with this site’s simplified almanac rules; only days rated four stars or more are listed. To exclude days that clash with your zodiac sign, use the Pick a date tool on the home page.

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