Lunar New Year 2026 in the Year of the Horse
10 February to 22 February 2026Welcome the Year of the Horse under the motto “The gallop of shared happiness for the whole family” at the Weltmuseum Wien!
Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays in East and Southeast Asia, celebrating the beginning of a new year according to the lunisolar calendar. It is a colorful and joyful celebration marked by family gatherings, ancestor worship, feasts, traditions, and hopes for a happy new year. In China, it is the most important festival (Spring Festival/Chūnjié), in Korea it is celebrated as Seollal, and in Vietnam as Tết.
This year, Lunar New Year falls on Tuesday, February 17, ushering in the Year of the Horse. Starting on Tuesday, February 10, we will be displaying the impressive dance masks for the lion dance (barongsai 獅子舞) and dragon dance (naga 龍舞) in the freely accessible Hall of Columns.
Starting on Tuesday, February 10, we will offer a varied accompanying program, and on Sunday, February 15, we will celebrate our big Lunar New Year festival in the Hall of Columns (see the calendar below).
We are now celebrating the Spring Festival for the fourth time: in 2023, we focused on Imlek, the Chinese New Year celebration in Indonesia; in 2024, on Tết, the festival of the first morning in Vietnam; and in 2025, the Panagbenga flower festival of the Filipinos was the centerpiece of our celebration.
On February 15, 2025, we will organize the festival together with the Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities in Vienna. The highlight will once again be a dragon and lion dance.
