By Chevaz Clarke, Miya Lee and Emily Wolfe

With Tuesday’s arrival of the new moon, Asian Americans gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year, a holiday that lasts several days to weeks, depending on the culture, and generally culminates on the full moon, which this year lands on March 3.

Celebrated by more than a billion people, it is one of the most important holidays throughout East Asia, Southeast Asia and their diaspora. Although traditions and calendars vary, the festivities share commonalities, such as preparing elaborate meals and performing rituals to call in good luck and honor ancestors.

In an effort to understand how different Asian American groups observe the new year, reporters visited five communities in the United States: Korean American adoptees in Minneapolis, a pan-Asian Mardi Gras krewe in New Orleans, a musical Mongolian American family in Los Angeles, a multigenerational home in Honolulu and a Tibetan American artist at his studio in Queens.

As the transformative Year of the Fire Horse gallops into view, these diverse groups are releasing the bad and the bygone and ushering in spring’s hope and renewal.

The Pan-Asian landscape is rich with tradition. In Honolulu, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans and New York, communities blend old and new customs to make the holiday their own.

To read the entire article and to listen to how the Lunar New Year is celebrated in different communities throughout the Unted States: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/02/21/style/lunar-new-year-asian-american-celebrations.html

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