Lantern Festival 2026 was on Tuesday, 3 March 2026 — it has already passed. The next Lantern Festival is on Saturday, 20 February 2027, in 101 days from today (11 November 2026). The exact date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day. This page gives the 2026 date, what the day means, how it is observed, and the dates for 2026, 2027 and 2028.
Try the tool: Countdown Timer — count down to Lantern Festival 2026 live, second by second.
Try the tool: Days Until Calculator — count the days until any date, including Lantern Festival.
When is Lantern Festival 2026?
Lantern Festival 2026 is on Tuesday, 3 March 2026 — Tuesday. That date has passed; the next occurrence is Saturday, 20 February 2027 (101 days away). It is a Chinese observance. The exact date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day.
How the countdown is worked out
The countdown is the number of days from today to the holiday's date: the 2026 date is in the past, so the live countdown is to the next occurrence (20 February 2027), which is 101 days away. The count is in calendar days — it counts the days you have to wait, not the number of midnights, and it does not count today. The countdown timer recomputes the number live, second by second, and the days until calculator does the same calculation for any date you choose. If the holiday is in a different time zone from you, the day starts at a different moment — but the date is the date, and the countdown is in days, so the time zone does not change the number.
What is Lantern Festival?
The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, ending the Chinese New Year celebrations. It has been observed for over 2,000 years.
How Lantern Festival is observed
People hang lanterns, solve riddles written on them and eat tangyuan (sweet glutinous rice balls). It is also traditionally a night for fireworks and moon-watching.
How the date is worked out
Lantern Festival follows a lunar or lunisolar calendar, so its date moves each year and the exact date depends on the moon sighting or the local calendar. The dates on this page are the expected dates; they can shift by a day. For planning travel or time off, confirm the date with an official source for your country — and for religious observance, with your local religious authority.
Lantern Festival dates — 2026, 2027 and 2028
| Year | Date | Day of the week |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3 March 2026 | Tuesday |
| 2027 | 20 February 2027 | Saturday |
| 2028 | 9 February 2028 | Wednesday |
Lantern Festival 2026 in the calendar
Lantern Festival 2026 is the 62nd day of 2026 — a year of 365 days — and it falls in ISO week 10 of the year. There are 303 days left in the year after it, and 31 days in March 2026. In the Northern Hemisphere it is spring; in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed.
The week number matters more than people think: in business and government across Europe, dates are often given as week numbers, and the week number finder gives the ISO week for any date. The day-of-year number is used in astronomy, in logistics and in some payroll systems. And the days-left figure is the useful one for planning the rest of the year: after Lantern Festival 2026 there are 303 days — 43 weeks — left in 2026.
Planning for Lantern Festival 2026
The 2026 observance has passed, so the planning horizon is the next one: Saturday, 20 February 2027 is 101 days away. That is 14 weeks — enough time to book travel, arrange time off and plan properly, and the earlier you book, the cheaper the travel usually is. The dates table above gives the next three years, so you can plan further ahead too.
Lantern Festival 2026 falls on a Tuesday — a weekday — so most people need to take the day off to mark it properly. Book the time off early, especially if the holiday is one people travel for: the days around a weekday holiday are among the busiest travel days of the year, and the fares rise as the date approaches.
The countdown in other units
The countdown to the next Lantern Festival (Saturday, 20 February 2027) is 101 days — which is 14 weeks and 3 days, 2424 hours, 145,440 minutes, or about 3.3 months. Of those 101 days, 72 are weekdays and 29 are weekend days — so if you are counting working days, there are 72 of them left before the holiday. The days between dates calculator works out the same numbers for any two dates, and the business days calculator counts the working days excluding public holidays.
Lantern Festival around the world
As a Chinese observance, this day follows the lunisolar calendar, so its date moves each year and the exact date can shift by a day. It is a public holiday in China and is observed by Chinese communities around the world. The customs — family reunion, special foods, fireworks, lanterns — are shared across the Chinese-speaking world, but the public holiday position varies by country.
Planning checklist for Lantern Festival 2026
| When | Task |
|---|---|
| Now | The 2026 observance has passed — put the next one (Saturday, 20 February 2027) in your calendar, with a reminder a month before. |
| One month before | Book travel and request time off, if Lantern Festival means either. |
| One week before | Confirm plans, buy what you need, and check the date — lunar dates can shift by a day. |
More countdowns
If you are counting down to Lantern Festival, you may also be counting down to Christmas Day 2026, New Year's Day 2026, Easter Sunday 2026. And for the same holiday in another year, see Lantern Festival 2027 and Lantern Festival 2028.
Frequently asked questions
When is Lantern Festival 2026?
Lantern Festival 2026 is on Tuesday, 3 March 2026 (Tuesday). The exact date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day.
How many days until Lantern Festival 2026?
Lantern Festival 2026 has passed. The next one is Saturday, 20 February 2027, in 101 days from 11 November 2026.
What day of the week is Lantern Festival 2026?
Lantern Festival 2026 is a Tuesday.
When is Lantern Festival in 2027?
Lantern Festival 2027 is on Saturday, 20 February 2027 (Saturday).
Is Lantern Festival a public holiday?
Lantern Festival is widely observed, but whether it is a public holiday depends on the country — check your local calendar.
What is Lantern Festival?
The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, ending the Chinese New Year celebrations. It has been observed for over 2,000 years.
How many weeks until Lantern Festival 2026?
The next Lantern Festival is 101 days away, which is 14 weeks and 3 days.
How many working days are left until Lantern Festival 2026?
Count the weekdays between today and the holiday: the business days calculator does it, excluding weekends and the public holidays you add. The countdown in other units above gives the weekday count for the next occurrence.
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - Holiday dates: TimeFlow's own holiday data (
data/holidays.ts). Lunar and lunisolar dates are labelled approximate: the exact local date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day. - TimeFlow's countdown timer and days until calculator — the live tools behind the countdown on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.