The long, overlooked history of Lunar New Year in the US

AROUND the world, Lunar New Year is celebrated in many unique ways: as Spring Festival in China, Tet Nguyên Đán in Vietnam, Seollal in Korea, Losar in Tibet, Tsagaan Sar in Mongolia, not to mention diaspora communities across the globe.

While ancient traditions are frequently discussed, the more recent history of these celebrations is less well-known. In the U.S., Asian Americans developed their own Lunar New Year traditions that were inflected by immigration, international relations, orientalism, and complicated relations with mainstream American society.

The origins of the term “Lunar New Year”

The English term “Lunar New Year” is actually a misnomer: The holiday is based on a lunarsolar, rather than a strictly lunar, calendar.

Lunar calendars have one major flaw: 12 full moon cycles last around 354 days, just short of a solar year. To bridge this gap, many cultures incorporate solar patterns into their calendars. The calendar used by many countries