What you wear at Chinese New Year is part of the greeting. New clothes say a fresh start, bright colours say celebration, and turning up to a family visit in the right outfit is a small courtesy elders notice. Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday 6 February 2027. Here is what to wear, what to avoid, and how to choose colours for the Fire Goat year.
Wear something new
The oldest rule is simply to wear new clothes on the first day, 新年穿新衣. A new outfit marks a clean break from the old year and a fresh start in the new one. It does not need to be expensive or traditional. A new shirt or dress you have not worn before keeps the custom perfectly well.
Many families also get haircuts before the New Year rather than during the first days, and keep the new clothes for the first visits to grandparents and older relatives.
Colours to wear
- Red is the classic New Year colour, for joy and good fortune, and in old legend for scaring away the monster Nian.
- Gold and yellow suggest wealth and prosperity.
- Pink, orange and other warm, bright colours carry the same festive feeling if full red is not your style.
Colours to avoid
- All black or all white. These are traditionally colours of mourning, worn at funerals, so an outfit in only black or only white sits badly on the first days of the year. Black or white as part of a colourful outfit is fine.
- Very dark, dull outfits for family visits, for the same reason.
Families who are in mourning that year usually wear muted colours and may skip visiting altogether. Our guide to Chinese funeral customs explains the mourning period.
Traditional outfits
Many Singaporeans like to wear something traditional for the reunion dinner or the first day of visiting:
- Cheongsam or qipao (旗袍): the fitted dress with a mandarin collar, now often in modern cuts and fabrics.
- Samfu (衫裤): a matching top and trousers, comfortable for a long day of visits.
- Tang jacket (唐装): a jacket with a mandarin collar and knotted buttons, popular for men and boys.
Matching family outfits for the photos are popular too. Comfort matters: the first two days often mean many homes, much food and a lot of sitting on the floor with the children.
Colours for the 2027 Fire Goat year
Some people also follow the year’s feng shui colours. The 2027 year is 丁未, Fire over Earth, so the feng shui palette leads with Metal colours: white, grey, silver and metallics. Fire reds are kept to accents because extra Fire feeds the already heavy Earth. The full reasoning is in our guide to feng shui lucky colours for 2027.
That seems to clash with the custom of red and the dislike of all-white, but the two meet easily. A red or warm outfit with gold or silver details, or a silver-grey cheongsam with red accents, keeps both the festival and the year’s palette happy.
Your own colours
The year’s palette is general. The colours that genuinely suit you come from your own chart, through the elements it needs. Our guide to your feng shui birth element is a start, and you can see your full chart with the free Ba Zi calculator.
When you arrive in your new clothes, the other half of the custom is what you say and give: see our pages of Chinese New Year greetings and ang bao etiquette.