{"id":170939,"date":"2026-02-19T06:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/170939\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:11:10","slug":"saddle-up-for-lunar-new-year-2026-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/170939\/","title":{"rendered":"Saddle Up for Lunar New Year 2026 \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last Tuesday, Feb. 17, was the start of Lunar New Year 2026. This Chinese zodiac cycle restart means we\u2019re now riding the Year of the Fire Horse into rapid change, intensity, and general big-energy business. But beyond the heat coming with this equine time, LNY represents a time to gather with friends and family, and celebrate traditions. Austin\u2019s Asian American community offers multiple different events across 15 days to delight all the senses, from tasting delicious food to seeing lion and dragon dances to even touching a real-life pony. Just remember to avoid sharp objects (so you don\u2019t cut yourself off from wealth), be careful around ceramics and glass (so your connection to good fortune isn\u2019t broken), and leave cleaning until after Saturday (as you could be scrubbing away good luck).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/meet.westchinatea.com\/events\/lunar-new-year-2026-welcoming-the-fire-horse?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGn1qEwCHfUqe1o_83-J-2R2LH7SWh0jypo8Fhdekrz0dkyf9RW9iwkAUkeNDk_aem_V42xmx5Dov0-qPc1etWZYw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lunar New Year: Welcoming the Fire Horse<\/a><\/p>\n<p>February 20, West China Tea House<\/p>\n<p>Engage the energetic motif of this year\u2019s zodiac animal with a warm and social tea ceremony by these local Gong Fu Cha practitioners. Along with enjoying a traditional tea service, lion dancers, poetry, and vendors, your ticket purchase includes a gift teacup and tea as a take-home keepsake. 6pm.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lunarnewyearfestaustin.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lunar New Year Festival Austin<\/a><\/p>\n<p>February 22, the Paper + Craft Pantry<\/p>\n<p>East Austin hub Springdale General gets painted red with Lunar New Year decorations and activities. With the goal of uplifting local Asian-owned small businesses as well as showcasing lion and dragon dances, bilingual storytime, and DIY crafts, the festival offers two different ways to attend. Entry is open to everyone with donation-based admission, but snag a VIP RSVP ($59.75) to get a special goodie bag as well as a keepsake badge. 11am.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/squeeclub\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">OMG Squee Sixth Birthday &amp; Lunar New Year<\/a><\/p>\n<p>February 28, OMG Squee<\/p>\n<p>The pastry and boba tea shop on Springdale celebrates a half-dozen years keeping Austin cutesy with a hoof-stomping party. Come early to get a spot in line for their LNY bakery specials, but save room for the other Asian food pop-ups on site. Plus: lion dance, live pony petting, a maker\u2019s market, and mahjong. 10am.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meanwhilebeer.com\/events\/lunar-new-year-celebration-beer-releasse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lunar New Year Celebration &amp; Beer Release<\/a><\/p>\n<p>March 1, Meanwhile Brewing<\/p>\n<p>Raise a glass of Meanwhile\u2019s newest collaboration with local handcrafter Kaiju Cut &amp; Sew \u2013 Lucky Leaves, a citrus and green tea lager \u2013 at this party with plenty of primo horsin\u2019 around. A market filled with Asian American vendors pops up with everything from candles to cool prints, and tile toters Mahjong Mafia give laid-back lessons on this 19th-century game. Noon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"collection-link has-small-font-size\">This article appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinchronicle.com\/issues\/february-20-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 20 \u2022 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinchronicle.com\/author\/james-scott\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cropped-James_Scott__21_of_23_-80x80.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJames Scott is a writer who has lived in Austin since 2017. He covers queer events, news, and anything pertaining to Austin&#8217;s LGBTQ community. Catch his work writing film essays for Hyperreal Film Club, performing in Queer Film Theory 101 at Barrel O&#8217; Fun, or on his social media platforms: @thejokesboy on Twitter and Bluesky or @ghostofelectricity on Instagram.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.austinchronicle.com\/author\/james-scott\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by James Scott\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Tuesday, Feb. 17, was the start of Lunar New Year 2026. This Chinese zodiac cycle restart means&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5563,69074,52655,1639,69075,69076,69077],"class_list":["post-170939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-public-library","tag-kaiju-cut-sew","tag-lunar-new-year","tag-meanwhile-brewing","tag-omg-squee","tag-the-paper-craft-pantry","tag-west-china-tea-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}