Scrolling through my mid-February social media feed, I was peppered with videos different from my favorite creators’ usual content, all centered around Lunar New Year. The videos were encouraging me to wash my hair, to absolutely not wash my hair, to change and cleanse my hair, and to absolutely not, under any circumstances, change my hair. In the swirling drain of social media culture, it seemed like the details of this important cultural holiday had gotten lost.
“We’re all Chinese today,” was the title of a video I saw on social media on Tuesday, February 18th, during the 2026 Lunar New Year. Algorithms frantically circulated videos with phrases like “year of the fire horse,” “how to manifest positive energy in the new year,” and “what not to do during Chinese New Year.” Trending audios were mixed in with true celebrations in the melting pot that is social media.
While the exposure of cultural holidays is incredibly positive and a shift from the early 2010s “my culture is not your costume” era, an issue arises when so many of these videos are made in the same flippant fervency of a trending audio. So much of the Lunar New Year content was made by people who have no connection or prior knowledge of the holiday whatsoever. While a quick online search can give a vast array of easily-available, questionably accurate details about the Lunar New Year, sharing those shaky details is not celebratory, or in some cases, even educational.
Some posts I saw were attributed, educational, and celebratory, but others were just sincerely wrong. Videos included hashtags about “year of the horse,” misleading when we are currently entering the year of the more specific (and more symbolic) fire-horse. The fire horse represents independence, transformation, and forward momentum, and hasn’t been the defining year since 1966. Small details like this being lost in the swirl of trends illustrate how quickly cultural appreciation can shift into cultural appropriation, especially when social media is involved.
Most people participating in this trend don’t even realize that “Lunar New Year” is an umbrella term. The traditions have their origins in early Chinese culture, typically aligning with the second moon of the calendar year and originally focusing on manifesting a good harvest for farmers, bringing in prosperity, and showing appreciation for ancestors. Variations of the celebration spread to nearby countries, and the effects can be seen in Korea’s Seollal or Vietnam’s Tết Nguyên Đán, both mid-February holidays centered around honor, family values, and prosperity in the astronomical calendar’s new year.
“Lunar New Year” encompasses multiple holidays, cultures, and celebrations over similar time periods; it is not inherently Chinese. While the rise in Chinese cultural trends and apps like Rednote or Xiaohongshu is not intended to be detrimental or harmful, the effects can be if such exposure is plagued by misinformation. Appreciation and education are not one in the same; there were numerous videos that were celebratory and supportive, but some that were “educational” based on nothing but an AI overview. Of course, people want to celebrate a new year. The appeal of restarting six weeks into the new year is high, especially considering the political, social, and economic turmoil that’s defined 2026 so far. But, not all press is good press: exposure needs to have positive intentions and appreciation. Just like cultures should not be costumes, holidays should not be trends.
