Kitchen God festival date lookup
Look up the Gregorian dates of the kitchen-god send-off (Little New Year, 23rd or 24th of the 12th lunar month), Lunar New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival for any year from 1900 to 2100, with the sexagenary year, zodiac and weekday.
Runs in your browserEvery computation happens in your browser — your data never leaves this device.
Enter a Gregorian year to list the kitchen-god send-off (Little New Year), Lunar New Year's Eve and Spring Festival at the start of that year, plus the send-off at the end of it.
Date table
The kitchen-god dates are converted with the built-in 1900–2100 lunar table, entirely on your device.
Enter a year to see its kitchen-god, New Year's Eve and Spring Festival dates
What this tool does
- Find out which Gregorian day Little New Year (the kitchen-god send-off) falls on in a given year: the northern custom (23rd of the 12th lunar month) and the southern one (24th) are listed together, each with its weekday.
- Convert the key dates at the turn of the lunar year: New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival at the start of the year, plus the send-off and New Year's Eve of that year's 12th lunar month (which fall in January–February of the next year).
- Read off the sexagenary year and zodiac: results give the ganzhi year (2026 is bing-wu, 丙午) and its zodiac animal, which is handy when checking couplets, packaging or festival copy.
- Use it as a reference for folk-custom writing: the output states its basis (lunar-calendar conversion plus common custom) and its data range (1900–2100), so the numbers can be quoted.
Example
Input
2026
Output
Zaomatous (kitchen-god send-off) folk dates for 2026 Lunar year 2026: 丙午 (Horse) Lunar year 2025: 乙巳 (Snake) [Start of 2026: 12th lunar month of lunar year 2025] Little New Year / kitchen-god send-off (north, 23rd of the 12th lunar month): 2026-02-10 (Tuesday) Little New Year / kitchen-god send-off (south, 24th of the 12th lunar month): 2026-02-11 (Wednesday) Lunar New Year's Eve (last day of the 12th lunar month, lunar year 2025): 2026-02-16 (Monday) [Spring Festival] Spring Festival (1st day of the 1st lunar month, lunar year 2026): 2026-02-17 (Tuesday)
This is the first 12 lines of the real output for the year 2026 with the region set to "both"; the full output continues with the send-off and New Year's Eve of the 12th lunar month of lunar year 2026 (2027-01-30, 2027-01-31 and 2027-02-06) and a statistics line about the built-in table.
Frequently asked questions
Which day exactly is "zaomatous", and why does it differ by region?
The names and dates are not uniform: most northern regions hold the kitchen-god send-off on the 23rd of the 12th lunar month, most southern regions on the 24th, and some places use "zaomatous" for the kitchen-god print itself or for the whole period around the send-off. This tool does not pick one meaning; it converts the 23rd, the 24th, New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival into Gregorian dates and leaves local custom to local practice.
How are the dates computed?
By lunar-calendar conversion. This tool bundles its own 1900–2100 compressed lunar table (201 years, including leap months and month lengths) and converts lunar month/day into Gregorian dates, then derives the weekday, sexagenary year and zodiac. You can check it against any published almanac: 2026 New Year's Day is 2026-02-17, 2025 had a leap sixth month, and New Year's Eve 2026 is 2026-02-16 (29th of the 12th lunar month).
Which years are supported, and what happens outside that range?
Only 1900–2100. Entering 1899 or 2101 returns an out-of-range error; for 1900 the send-off at the start of the year (12th month of lunar year 1899) and for 2100 the send-off at the end of the year (which falls in 2101) are marked as unavailable instead of being estimated.
Why is New Year's Eve sometimes the 29th and sometimes the 30th of the 12th month?
The 12th lunar month has either 29 or 30 days, so in a short year there is no 30th and New Year's Eve is the 29th. Lunar year 2025 has a 29-day 12th month, so New Year's Eve 2026 is 2026-02-16 (29th); lunar year 2026 has a 30-day 12th month, so New Year's Eve 2027 is 2027-02-06 (30th). The tool prints the month length from the table without rounding.
Why does the "end of year" send-off show a date in the following year?
Because the 12th lunar month usually falls in January–February of the next Gregorian year. The send-off at the end of 2026 is the 23rd of the 12th month of lunar year 2026, i.e. 2027-01-30. Entering one Gregorian year therefore returns both the start-of-year group (12th month of the previous lunar year) and the end-of-year group (12th month of that lunar year), so cross-year dates are not mixed up.
Does it use the network or my system clock?
No. Everything is computed locally with pure functions: no network requests and no system clock (the year comes only from your input), so the same input always gives the same result on any device at any time.
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