Chinese New Year Festival 2026

Year of the Fire Horse

Kung Hee Fat Choy!

Year of the Fire Horse

Every year in Honolulu, the Lunar New Year is welcomed in with a festival and parade in Chinatown. Chinese organizations, businesses, and clubs march down King Street from the Capitol Building to the festival grounds near A'ala Park to celebrate the next animal in the Lunar Calendar with lion dances, singers, performers, merchandise, and so much food!

If you stayed home to celebrate, here's all of the excitement you missed!

Let's start at the beginning. The Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon and happens roughly around the end of January to mid-February. There are twelve animals in the zodiac and five elements that combine to represent a full sixty year cycle. This year we welcome in the Fire Horse, an animal with Double Fire energy that represents rapid change, independence, intense drive, and instability. For a full run-down of the Chinese Zodiac and the Lunar New Year, check out the article I've written here.

Marching down King Street, representing OSGL!

The two mile walk was started with the traditional red fire crackers and led by lion dances and the Narcissus Court perched upon shiny Corvette convertibles. The street was lined with huge crowds offering to feed the lions dollar bills for good luck and prosperity. There were several lion dance groups marching down interspersed between other clubs and societies. We even had our own lions too!

We had tons of fun entertaining the children, waving to friends and family watching the parade, and representing Oo Syak Gee Lu in the celebrations happening throughout Chinatown. Even the weather held out for us to fully enjoy the festivities without getting rained out by the clouds that were hung above.

It was so much fun that we hardly noticed the two mile walk! Before we knew it, we were at the festival grounds, sponsored by American Savings Bank and hosted by Chinatown808. There were SIXTY vendors selling food, drinks, and traditional merchandise to deck out the house with red and gold. Horse statues and plushes, toy lions, door hangers, posters, and so much more hung from tents and filled up tables for festival goers to buy. And there were even bounce houses, huge inflatable animals and a mini horse petting stall for the kids!

We also had dinner at Hawaii Seafood and Dim Sum but... to be honest, my arms were killing me from being a lion and taking pictures of the food had completely slipped my mind. You can trust me when I say it was delicious though! May this year be prosperous and lucky for everyone! Kung Hee Fat Choy!