Lunar New Year 2025

20 Jan 2025

The lunar new year (also known as Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Chunyun, Tet, and Seollal among others) is celebrated around the world.  Official celebrations are held in many Asian countries including China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and Tibet.

Lunar new year marks the start of the new year based on lunar calendars. In 2025, it falls on 29 January and welcomes the year of the Snake. Celebrations will last for 14 days, concluding with the Lantern Festival on 12 February 2025.

Advice to Travellers

If you are planning to travel abroad to celebrate lunar new year, you should be aware how you can stay safe and protect yourself, your family and/ or friends against common health risks.  

Before travel:

Review the latest FCDO foreign travel advice for the country you are travelling to including entry requirements, safety and security risks.

Ensure you have valid travel insurance in place.

Review the fitfortravel country page for your destination, for information on country-specific health risks and information on disease outbreaks (found in the alerts section).

• If you think you may need travel health advice and/or vaccines or boosters before travel, you should arrange for a travel health risk assessment.

Check that you are up to date with vaccines for day to day life in the UK.

• Make sure you have had two doses of the MMR vaccine. For information on what to do if you're unsure if you've had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine, see NHS inform (Scotland) or NHS UK (rest of UK).

The World Health Organization (WHO) are reporting an increase in respiratory infections worldwide this winter season.  These can spread easily between people in large crowds.

• Consider having the flu and COVID-19 vaccine (if you are eligible) before travel, particularly if you are more at risk of severe illness

During Travel

To protect yourself from illness when travelling, you should consider carrying out the following advice:

• take care with respiratory hygiene and hand hygiene to protect yourself and others from illnesses caused by germs (such as bacteria and viruses) that enter our bodies through our eyes, nose or mouth
• take safe food and water precautions and drink plenty of fluids to avoid becoming dehydrated, especially if the weather is hot
• protect yourself against insect bites at all times of the day and night to reduce your risk of exposure to diseases spread to people by biting insects
• practice safer sex, and use condoms to reduce your risk of blood borne viruses and other sexual health risks. Take condoms with you when you travel, even if you aren’t planning to have sex
• practice sun safety to reduce your risk of sunstroke and other heat conditions, especially in warm weather, and also to help you to avoid getting skin cancer later in your life
• consider carrying a simple first aid kit to self-manage basic health problems
• be aware that excessive use of alcohol and/or drugs can increase your likelihood of risk-taking behaviour. Accidents and injuries are not uncommon. It is also worth being aware that your travel insurance may become invalid if you claim for an incident which occurred whilst you were 'under the influence'.

Avian Influenza

Avian influenza (more commonly known as 'bird flu') is a virus in birds that can spread from infected birds to other animals and humans.  Human cases of avian influenza are rare but have been reported worldwide, including in China, Southeast Asia and the Americas.

• It is important that you know how to reduce your risk of 'bird flu' whilst travelling, and what to do if you have symptoms.

Dengue fever

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports continued transmission of dengue worldwide, including in Asian and Pacific countries.

• See WHO interactive map of Global Dengue cases

Dengue is an infection spread by mosquito bites that can cause a severe flu-like illness. The mosquitoes which transmit dengue bite during the day, between dawn and dusk. They are particularly persistent and aggressive.

If you are travelling to an affected region, you are potentially at risk of dengue fever and should be aware of this infection.

• You can protect yourself by taking measures to avoid mosquito bites at all times.

After Travel

If you or your family become unwell in the weeks/months after travel, particularly with a high fever, flu-like symptoms, rash and/or diarrhoea, you should seek urgent medical advice. Make sure you mention your recent travel history to the health professional, particularly if you have travelled to a country where malaria is a risk.