Aesthetic Taiwanese restaurant chain BAO has a history of doing all sorts of artistically impressive things with the humble bao bun, from making flower baos and hot cross baos for Mother’s Day and Easter, to crafting puffer jackets and handbags out of the stuff, but we’re especially enamoured with the super cute pistachio-filled serpent baos they’ve crafted for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Available from all seven BAO sites from January 20, the slithery little sweet treats are best enjoyed at the end of the restaurant’s five course Lunar New Year feasting menu. Available for £29 per person from the City, Marylebone, King’s Cross, Shoreditch and Battersea locations, it features a variety of dishes symbolising luck and prosperity. Better yet, every guest who opts for the set menu will be given a red envelope potentially containing one of several serpent-themed prizes ranging from BAO vouchers and limited edition merch to a one-of-a-kind engraved lighter entitling the winner to one free bao every day for a year. Know someone who was born in the Year of the Snake? They’re said to be extra lucky this year, so why not take them for a slap-up dinner?
New Year’s resolutions not gone quite to plan yet? No worries, because Chinese New Year has arrived and we have officially entered the Year of the Snake, meaning there’s a second chance to get a fresh start for this year.
Also known as the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, Tet and Seollal, it’s celebrated across many more countries in South Asia including Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well in many diaspora communities around the globe.
The official start of the new lunar calendar is another chance to wipe the slate clean and start afresh for a more positive new year. And we can all get behind that!
When is Chinese New Year celebrated in London in 2025?
In 2025 Chinese New Year fell on Wednesday 29 January, ushering in the Year of the Snake. But don’t worry because you haven’t missed all of the festivities. On Sunday, February 2 London’s Chinatown, Trafalgar Square and the West End will fill up with hundreds of thousands of revellers, in the biggest Lunar New Year celebration in the world outside of Asia. The centrepiece of the festivities is a spectacular parade, as well as free performances and, of course, feasting galore.
What does the Year of the Snake mean?
The sixth animal in the cycle of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, the snake represents wisdom, transformation, intuition and resilience.
The last Year of the Snake was in 2013, and you’re known as a snake if you were born in 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965, 1953 or 1941. If so, tradition has it that you’ll be presented with exciting new opportunities this year. And, being a snake, you’ll know just how to make the most of them: people born in this year are said to be insightful, resourceful and graceful problem-solvers, embodying the values of adaptability and growth.
What date is the London Chinese New Year Parade?
This year’s parade takes place the weekend after the Lunar New Year, on Sunday 2 February, with lion dances taking place around Chinatown on Saturday 31 January for revellers who want to start the celebrations early.
Where does the parade start?
A detailed route and timings for this year’s parade are yet to be announced, but as usual, it will begin by Trafalgar Square and end in Chinatown.
Typically, the parade starts on Charing Cross Road at 10.15am and finishes on Shaftesbury Avenue at around midday, after which a lions’ eye-dotting ceremony takes place in Chinatown, with stage performances in Trafalgar Square. For more details check out our guide to London’s Chinese New Year parade, which we’ll be updating in due course.
As well as the spectacle of the costumed parade and stage performances there are also plenty of ways to join in the celebrations, from tucking into special set-menu dinners around Chinatown and at the city’s best Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Korean restaurants, to joining historic walks, educational family days and craft workshops.
For more insider advice, be sure to read up on the best of Chinese London.
RECOMMENDED: More great things to do in London this January.
