Chuxi, the last day of the lunar year, brings families together for ancestor rites, a reunion dinner, red envelopes and staying up to welcome the new year.
Lunar date
last day of the 12th month (29th or 30th)
Usual dates
Jan 22–Feb 18
Date and Origins
Chuxi (除夕) is the final day of the twelfth lunar month: the thirtieth if the month is long, the twenty-ninth if it is short. Chu means 'to remove' or 'replace' and xi means 'evening', so the name describes the night when the old year is cleared away.
In ancient times a year-end exorcism called the Great Nuo sent masked performers through palaces and streets to chase out plague demons. The sixth-century Jingchu Suishi Ji describes burning bamboo in the courtyard so that its joints would burst with a bang and scare off mountain spirits, the origin of the word baozhu, 'exploding bamboo', for firecrackers. A folk legend also tells of a small demon called Sui that touched sleeping children's heads on this night and made them ill; parents placed coins wrapped in red paper by the pillow to protect them, and 'money to suppress Sui' became yasuiqian, 'money to hold down the year'.
Customs
Spring couplets and door gods are pasted up, usually in the afternoon, replacing last year's.
Ancestors are honoured before dinner and invited home for the holiday; many Taiwanese families also make offerings to the spirit guardian of the house site.
The reunion dinner gathers every family member who can travel home; in Taiwan it is called weilu, 'gathering around the stove'.
Elders give red envelopes to the young, and in Taiwan adult children often give them to their parents.
Staying up late (shousui) to see in the new year is traditionally thought to add years to parents' lives.
At midnight, firecrackers, fireworks and temple bells welcome the first moment of the new year.
Festive Foods
Dishes carry auspicious meanings. Fish stands for 'surplus every year', and part of it is often deliberately left uneaten; chicken suggests building up the household. In the north, dumplings are boiled as midnight passes, sometimes with a coin hidden inside for whoever is luckiest. Taiwanese families often gather around a hot pot and eat changniancai, mustard greens left whole to symbolise long life, along with fish and meat balls for togetherness and radish for good fortune. Cantonese homes favour black moss with dried oysters, a pun on prosperity, and layered poon choi.
Regional Differences
In Taiwan the eve is a national holiday, and some people rush to temples at midnight to offer the first incense. In mainland China, watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, broadcast since 1983, is a ritual for many families, and the eve was restored as a statutory holiday from 2025. Hong Kong's eve is not a public holiday, yet the Lunar New Year flower markets peak that night as crowds buy peach blossoms and kumquat trees, and many queue at Wong Tai Sin Temple to place the first incense at midnight; Macau has similar markets and temple visits. In Singapore and Malaysia, families often toss yusheng at the reunion meal.
Korean tradition kept lamps lit on the eve, joking that children who fell asleep would wake with white eyebrows. Vietnam marks Giao Thừa with a midnight offering. Japan, using the Gregorian calendar, celebrates Ōmisoka on 31 December with year-crossing soba noodles and 108 temple bell strikes.
Taboos and Trivia
Tradition discourages arguing or ill-omened words on the eve, and a broken bowl is answered with 'peace year after year'. Some families leave the lights on all night for a bright year, and in the past an empty place was set for any relative who could not make it home.
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