Welcome the Year of the Fire Horse
If you consider yourself confident, agreeable, and responsible, but your ears point backward when others try to rein you in, this may be your year. The traditional Chinese celebration of Lunar New Year for 2026 begins today, and Lower Manhattan will take part in observances of “mǎ nián,” or Year of the Horse, over the next few weeks.
The Horse Sign is the seventh in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac and represents freedom, movement, and courage, along with vitality, speed, perseverance, and success. People born in Horse years are perceived as honest and outspoken, as well as hardworking, warm-hearted, and independent. Although Horse years come about every duodecad, the 2026 celebration coincides with the element (or Earthly Branch) of Fire, which happens only once every six decades. This combination, which adds passion and rapid transformation to the outlook for the year, along with bold, independent action, last took place in 1966, when ground was broken for the original World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, and Shirley MacLaine was frugging on Broadway in “Sweet Charity.”
Today, at 10am and 1pm, Welcome to Chinatown (115 Bowery, near Hester Street) will offer Lunar New Year Kids Day, featuring Mandarin language and story time, a craft workshop, and snacks from Spongies Cafe, Mei Lai Wah, and Lily’s Treats. Tickets are priced at $10.
Battery Park City’s Skyscraper Museum (39 Battery Place, near First Place) will host a free Lunar New Year family program that explores the vernacular architecture of East Asia and invites kids to create illuminated paper lanterns inspired by that style of building. This free program begins at 10:30am and continues throughout the day, but an online RSVP is required for timed-entry tickets.
From 4:30pm to 6pm today, Pearl River Mart (452 Broadway, near Grand Street) will offer matcha from Sage Matcha and noodle samples from Mama Lam’s, followed by a performance from the Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar lion and dragon dance team.
On Saturday, February 28, at 1pm, Gotham Park (alongside the Brooklyn Bridge) will offer a traditional lion dance performance by Team Manjushri, a female-led troupe that is rolling back gender barriers in a traditionally male-dominated field. At 2pm, Gotham Park’s Brooklyn Banks skateboard facility will host an appearance by the “Fortune God” skateboarder. And at 2:30pm, the lion dance will parade to Mott Street and join an ongoing Chinatown celebration of Lunar New Year.
And on Sunday, March 1, the 28th Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Festival begins at 11:30am with an open-air fair featuring dozens of booths on Bayard Street (near Mulberry), culminating at 1pm with a parade through Chinatown.
All events are free unless otherwise noted.