Is 2027 a widow year?

The arithmetic

Lì Chūn (立春), the Start of Spring, is a solar date: the day the sun reaches 315 degrees along its yearly path, about 4 February. A lunar year counts moons instead. An ordinary one runs about 354 days, 11 short of the 365 between one Lì Chūn and the next, so a lunar year can slip between two of them.

That happens here. Lì Chūn falls on 4 February 2027, two days before the lunar year opens on 6 February (Hong Kong Observatory, 2027). The next falls on 4 February 2028, ten days after the year closes on 25 January (Hong Kong Observatory, 2028). The 354 days between hold none.

This is ordinary. About seven lunar years in every 19 have no Lì Chūn, and about seven have two (China Daily, quoted in Speaking of China). By this site's calendar, 37 of the 100 lunar years from 1950 to 2049 have none, including 2019, 2021, 2024, 2027, 2029 and 2032. The lunar year that follows 2027 has a leap month and holds two, on 4 February 2028 and 3 February 2029.

One point often goes wrong. Reports in early 2026 called the 2026 Horse year spring-less (China Youth Daily, in Chinese). It isn't: Lì Chūn on 4 February 2027 falls inside the Horse year, on the 28th day of its last month, two days before the Goat year begins on 6 February (Hong Kong Observatory, 2027). “No spring” here means no Lì Chūn day in the lunar year. Spring itself comes as usual.

The belief

A year with no Lì Chūn is called 无春年, a no-spring year. Wikipedia gives 寡妇年, a widow year, for northern China and 盲年, a blind year, for southern China (Wikipedia, citing a Baidu Q&A page), and China Youth Daily also lists 寡年, 哑年 and 黑年 (in Chinese). The belief is that a woman who marries in such a year risks being widowed, or more loosely that the year is bad for weddings (China Daily, quoted in Speaking of China).

Who ignores it

Scientists and scholars in China have dismissed it many times. A researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories said in 2019 that it has no scientific basis at all, and a folklore professor at East China Normal University has classed it as rumor (both recounted by HK01, in Chinese, an article that itself repeats the 2026 error). A Peking University professor told China News Service it makes no scientific sense (in Chinese).

On practitioners we have little evidence either way. We know of no survey, and some families do still avoid these years.

This site's almanac has no rule for it either. Between 6 February and 31 December 2027, the traditional day table it follows lists weddings (嫁娶) as suitable on 117 days. That is one table, not a ruling, and almanacs differ. Good wedding dates in 2027 ›

What the marriage figures show

Some couples do act on it, and some don't. China Daily reported couples hurrying to marry before the 2024 lunar year, which also had no Lì Chūn, and others who ignored the taboo and kept their plans (China Daily via Asia News Network). Registrations fell 20.5% in 2024, to about 6.1 million (China Daily via Asia News Network), and rose about 11% in 2025, to 6.76 million (CGTN via China Youth Daily).

These figures can't separate the causes, and they count calendar years, which don't line up with lunar ones. The Guardian reported the widow-year talk as speculation, and said the fall was amplified by a catch-up rebound in 2023 after COVID restrictions, beside a shrinking young population, weak job prospects and living costs (in Taipei Times). The 2025 rise came in a lunar year with two Lì Chūn, with a nationwide registration rule from May (CGTN via China Youth Daily) and local incentives (SCMP in The Star). And none of it says anything about the marriages themselves.