Lunar New Year in NYC welcomes the Year of the Fire Horse with high-energy celebrations in Chinatown and Sunset Park, world-class programming at Lincoln Center and The Met, and festive dining experiences across the city’s vibrant Asian-American communities.
New York City’s Lunar New Year celebrations unfold across neighborhoods that have long shaped the city’s Asian American cultural life—from Chinatown’s time-honored ceremonies to large-scale performances at Lincoln Center and community festivals in Queens. Marking the Year of the Fire Horse, this season brings together firecracker rituals, parades, music, and family programming throughout February and into early March.
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Parades & Outdoor Celebrations
Year of the Horse Lunar New Year Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival
📍 Location: Sara D. Roosevelt Park [Chrystie and Grand Streets] — Lower East Side, Manhattan | Date: February 17, 2026 | Time: 11 AM – 3:30 PM
Held in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, the annual firecracker ceremony near Chinatown marks the ceremonial opening of the Lunar New Year. Firecrackers are set off to ward away bad spirits, filling the park with sound, movement, and collective energy as the year begins.
Throughout the afternoon, traditional dancers animate the space in elaborate costumes inspired by the Chinese zodiac, with dragon and lion dances unfolding across the park in rhythmic bursts. The festival’s scale and open-air setting make it one of the most visceral ways to experience Lunar New Year traditions in the city, best approached as a moment to observe, linger, and take in the atmosphere rather than rush through.
Details: Year of the Horse Lunar New Year Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival
New York City Lunar New Year Parade and Festival
📍 Location: Mott Street and Canal Street — Manhattan | Date: March 1, 2026 | Time: 1 PM – 3:30 PM
One of the largest public celebrations of Lunar New Year in NYC, this annual parade transforms the streets around Chinatown into a moving corridor of sound, color, and performance. Beginning at Mott Street and Canal Street, the procession unfolds in the early afternoon with traditional Lion Dance performances, coordinated dance troupes, and community groups marking the holiday through music and movement.
As the parade makes its way toward Sara D. Roosevelt Park, the atmosphere shifts from procession to gathering. An easy transition point for taking in the surrounding neighborhood or sitting down for a late lunch nearby. Expect crowds and high energy. This is Lunar New Year at its most expansive and communal, best experienced at a relaxed pace with time to wander once the parade concludes.
Details: New York City Lunar New Year Parade and Festival
Sunset Park Lunar New Year Parade
📍 Location: 8th Avenue [50th to 60th Streets] — Sunset Park, Brooklyn | Date: February 22, 2026 | Time: 11 AM – 4 PM
One of the largest celebrations of Lunar New Year in NYC unfolds along 8th Avenue in Sunset Park, where the holiday is observed at a distinctly neighborhood scale. Organized by the Brooklyn Chinese American Association since 1988, the annual celebration begins with traditional firecracker displays at noon, followed by the Head Lion leading a procession through one of the city’s most vibrant East Asian communities.
The parade features lion dances, kung fu demonstrations, and performances by local schools and senior centers, grounding the celebration in community participation rather than spectacle. Cultural programming continues on the main stage at 8th Avenue and 50th Street, while food vendors and family activities line the avenue throughout the afternoon. Drawing tens of thousands of attendees each year, this celebration offers a deeply rooted Brooklyn counterpart to Manhattan’s larger, more visitor-heavy Lunar New Year events.
Details: Chinese New Year Parade
Cultural Programming & Performances
Sunday Art: Lunar New Year Celebration
📍 Location: Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway — Prospect Heights, Brooklyn | Date: February 15, 2026 | Time: 12 PM – 4 PM | Free with museum admission [pay-what-you-wish]
The Brooklyn Museum marks Lunar New Year in NYC with a drop-in program designed for families and casual museumgoers alike. Held in the Beaux-Arts Court on the third floor, the afternoon centers on live lion dance performances by the Chinese Freemasons Athletic Club, paired with hands-on art-making inspired by works from the museum’s collection.
The programming invites participants to explore Year of the Horse themes through creative workshops, offering an engaging, indoor way to connect cultural tradition with visual expression. Free with museum admission—which is pay-what-you-wish for all visitors—this is an accessible option for families seeking a relaxed, museum-based Lunar New Year experience.
Details: Sunday Art: Lunar New Year Celebration
Lunar New Year Celebration at City Point & Albee Square
📍 Location: City Point BKLYN, 445 Albee Square West — Downtown Brooklyn | Date: February 21, 2026 | Time: 1 PM – 4 PM
Downtown Brooklyn hosts a Lion Dance Crawl through multiple venues, with the Choy Lay Fut Lion Dance Team performing throughout City Point, Albee Square, and DeKalb Market Hall. Organized by Brooklyn Bridge Parents and City Point, the celebration includes hands-on crafts for children at City Point’s main floor gallery and DJ sets by DJ Boogie on Albee Square plaza. Performance times are staggered across locations [City Point at 1:00 and 1:30 PM, Albee Square at 2:10, 2:40, and 3:20 PM, DeKalb Market Hall at 3:40 and 4:10 PM], allowing families to follow the dancers through Downtown Brooklyn’s shopping and dining district. Free and suitable for all ages.
Details: Lunar New Year Celebration at City Point & Albee Square | Tickets: Eventbrite
MOCA Family Festival
📍 Location: Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street — Little Italy, Manhattan | Date: February 21, 2026 | Time: 10 AM – 5 PM
Designed as a quieter counterpoint to the city’s larger outdoor celebrations, the Museum of Chinese in America’s Family Festival offers an all-day, indoor way to experience Lunar New Year in NYC with younger children. The program invites families into the museum for hands-on activities that introduce holiday traditions through participation rather than spectacle.
Throughout the day, children can take part in lion dance workshops, calligraphy sessions, and guided storytelling, creating space for learning and curiosity in a more contained setting. It is a thoughtful option for families looking to engage with Lunar New Year traditions at a slower pace, especially welcome during the colder weeks of February.
Details: Lunar New Year Family Festival | Tickets: Eventbrite
Lunar New Year Celebration
📍 Location: David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza — Upper West Side, Manhattan | Date: February 22, 2026 | Time: 11 AM
Held at David Geffen Hall, this family-friendly program brings Lunar New Year in NYC into a large-scale performance setting designed to engage multiple generations. The morning unfolds with high-energy lion dance performances by the Tai Look Lion Dance Company, alongside traditional Korean music presented by Insun Park & Generals.
Beyond the stage, the celebration invites participation through storytime for children, hands-on arts and crafts in collaboration with the Shanghai Museum, and food offerings that extend the experience beyond performance. The result is a lively, immersive introduction to the Year of the Horse, best suited for families looking to combine music, movement, and creative play in a single outing.
Details: Lunar New Year Celebration
Tuvergen Band: Mongolian Folk Fusion
📍 Location: Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard — Flushing, Queens | Date: February 22, 2026 | Time: 2:15 PM
Presented at Flushing Town Hall, this Lunar New Year performance offers a more contemplative way to engage with the season through sound. The Tuvergen Band draws on Mongolia’s rich musical traditions, using rhythm and voice to reflect the natural world—wind, water, and animal life across the vast steppe.
Central to the performance is khöömii, or throat singing, a vocal technique in which a single performer produces multiple tones simultaneously. The effect is layered and immersive, creating harmonies that feel expansive rather than amplified. Set within Flushing Town Hall’s intimate performance space, the concert invites focused listening and cultural curiosity. It offers a quieter counterpoint to the city’s larger Lunar New Year celebrations.
Details: Tuvergen Band: Mongolian Folk Fusion
Lunar New Year Gala
📍 Location: David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza — Upper West Side, Manhattan | Date: February 25, 2026 | Time: 7 PM
Hosted at David Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonic’s annual Lunar New Year Gala offers an evening-length celebration that brings together Eastern and Western musical traditions in a formal concert setting. Performed by world-class musicians, the program reflects the Philharmonic’s ongoing engagement with global cultural traditions through orchestral expression.
The evening unfolds beyond the concert hall with a cocktail reception and seated dinner, creating a full gala experience that balances performance with social gathering. More ceremonial than communal, this Lunar New Year celebration is best suited for those looking to mark the occasion through music and ritual. The evening also supports the orchestra’s broader artistic mission.
Details: Lunar New Year Gala
Lunar New Year in NYC: Exhibitions
Red Horizon: Art. Heritage. New Energy.
📍 Location: Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard — Flushing, Queens | Date: Through March 1, 2026 | Time: 12 PM – 5 PM
Presented at Flushing Town Hall, Red Horizon marks the Year of the Red Horse through a group exhibition of contemporary painting, sculpture, and mixed media works by artists of Asian descent. Curated by Flushing Town Hall teaching artist Stephanie S. Lee, the exhibition brings together practices that reflect movement, vitality, and renewal, qualities traditionally associated with the zodiac year.
The presentation is complemented by a series of public programs that extend the exhibition beyond the gallery walls, including an opening reception with a Korean Tea Ceremony, a Horse Painting Workshop, and a closing reception featuring an artist talk. Together, the exhibition and its programs offer a quieter, reflective way to engage with Lunar New Year in NYC, grounded in visual culture and creative continuity.
Details: Red Horizon: Art. Heritage. New Energy.
Celebrating the Year of the Horse
📍 Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue — Upper East Side, Manhattan | Date: February 7, 2026 – January 26, 2027 | Gallery 207
Presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Celebrating the Year of the Horse draws from the museum’s collection to examine the horse’s enduring role in Chinese civilization and its symbolic place within Lunar New Year traditions. The presentation traces how the animal, domesticated in prehistoric times, shaped daily life across centuries, influencing agriculture, transportation, trade, warfare, sport, and entertainment.
Through works in ceramics, glass, jade, metal, and woodblock prints, the exhibition explores the horse as both a practical force and a cultural symbol. In ancient China, horse-drawn chariots carried military commanders and the social elite. At the same time, during the Tang dynasty [618–907], tall and robust horses came to embody the strength of the state and the empire’s cosmopolitan spirit. Across the galleries, the horse also appears as a noble mount for divine guardians believed to bring joy, protection, and prosperity, making this a reflective, museum-based way to engage with the Lunar New Year in NYC.
Free with Museum admission [pay-what-you-wish for NY, NJ, and CT residents]
Details: Celebrating the Year of the Horse
Lunar New Year Dining in NYC: Where to Eat
Clement at The Peninsula New York
📍 Location: 700 Fifth Avenue [at 55th Street] — Midtown West, Manhattan | 🌐 Website: Clement | Date: Asian-inspired Lunar New Year Brunch: February 15, 2026 | Time: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM | Lion Dance: Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 9:30 AM
For a polished, hotel-centered take on Lunar New Year in NYC, The Peninsula New York marks the Year of the Horse with a celebratory Asian-inspired brunch buffet and a traditional lion dance ritual. The brunch unfolds in an elegant setting with a menu designed around classic Lunar New Year dishes, including handmade dumplings, a congee bar, char siu, five-spice roasted duck legs, spring rolls, and longevity noodles.
Desserts lean festive and symbolic, with offerings such as egg custard tarts, Chinese almond cookies, fried sesame balls, and custom horseshoe shortbread cookies created specifically for the occasion. Two days later, on Tuesday, February 17—the first day of the Lunar New Year—the hotel welcomes the year with a traditional Lion Dance performance in the lobby, a gesture intended to usher in good fortune and prosperity. Throughout the celebration period, red lanterns and floral arrangements transform the lobby into a seasonal focal point.
Reservations: OpenTable
Chinese Tuxedo
📍 Location: 5 Doyers Street — Chinatown, Manhattan | 🌐 Website: Chinese Tuxedo | Date: February 17, 21, 22, 28 & March 1, 2026
Set along historic Doyers Street, in a space that once housed New York City’s first Chinese Opera House, Chinese Tuxedo offers a Lunar New Year dining experience rooted in tradition and theatrical scale. For Lunar New Year in NYC, the restaurant presents its Lucky 98 Banquet Menu, a $98, family-style feast that reinterprets classic Chinese banquet dishes for the contemporary table.
Served across the restaurant’s dramatic two-level dining room, the menu is designed for sharing, making it well-suited for group celebrations that extend beyond a single night and encourage return visits throughout the holiday period.
Reservations: Resy
Celebrate Lunar New Year at 53
📍 Location: 53 West 53rd Street — Midtown West, Manhattan | 🌐 Website: 53 | Date: February 16 to 20, 2026
Set within the Museum of Modern Art Tower, 53 marks Lunar New Year in NYC with a dining experience that unfolds across all three levels of the restaurant. Throughout the evening, lion dancers move through the space, bringing moments of ritual and movement into the dining room while signaling good fortune for the year ahead.
The menu leans celebratory, with Lunar New Year–inspired specialties such as abalone rice with chicken jus and ginger, duck breast wraps, lobster finished with duck egg yolk, and the Wild Stallion cocktail. Prosperity noodles are also available as a seasonal addition, extending the experience beyond dinner service. The result is a refined, contemporary way to observe the holiday, one that blends culinary precision with tradition in a distinctly Midtown setting.
Reservations: SevenRooms
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