Celebrating 25 Years of Lunar New Year at OMCA: Honoring Tradition, Renewal, and the Power of Fire

For 25 years, the Oakland Museum of California’s Lunar New Year Celebration has been a space where culture lives, evolves, and is shared across generations, communities, and the Museum’s campus. On Saturday, February 21, 2026, OMCA invites visitors to gather once again for this beloved tradition, marking a milestone anniversary that honors cultural continuity while looking boldly toward the future.

This year’s celebration carries special resonance as we welcome the Year of the Fire Horse. In the Chinese zodiac, the Horse symbolizes energy, independence, and forward momentum. Paired with the element of Fire, 2026 is associated with passion, vitality, and transformation—qualities that feel especially meaningful as OMCA celebrates a quarter-century of Lunar New Year programming rooted in Oakland’s AAPI communities.

Since its beginnings, OMCA’s Lunar New Year Celebration has offered a space for families to gather, artists to share traditions, and visitors of all backgrounds to learn through participation and joy. From lion and dragon dances that usher in good fortune, to music, movement, crafts, and food that reflect the diversity of the Bay Area, the celebration has always been about more than a single day. It is about continuity, passing down stories, honoring ancestors, and affirming cultural presence in the present.

The 25th anniversary invites reflection on how traditions endure not by standing still, but by adapting, growing, and responding to the moment. That spirit of renewal is echoed in Good Fire: Tending Native Lands, a special exhibition on view during the Lunar New Year Celebration.

At a time when fire is often framed only as a destructive force, Good Fire offers a different perspective. Created in close collaboration with Native fire practitioners, artists, and cultural leaders from Northern California, the exhibition explores how cultural burning has sustained healthy ecosystems and living traditions for thousands of years.

The resonance with the Year of the Fire Horse is more than symbolic. Both reflect the power of communities to steward their own futures through continuity, knowledge, and care. Just as Lunar New Year traditions affirm resilience and cultural autonomy, Native fire practices uphold sovereignty and enduring relationships to land, reminding us that fire, when tended with intention, is a force for renewal.

During the Lunar New Year Celebration, guests are invited to move between the festival’s lively performances and hands-on activities and the quieter, contemplative spaces of OMCA’s galleries. Visitors can also explore Black Spaces: Reclaim & Remain, on view through March 1 in honor of Black History Month, providing a timely opportunity to reflect on the resilience of Black communities in the East Bay. The exhibition traces stories of displacement, reclamation, and cultural continuity through historic photographs, objects, and new installations by artists and community activists. Like the Fire Horse and Good Fire, Black Spaces underscores the power of communities to sustain traditions, assert autonomy, and create spaces for care and regeneration even in the face of systemic challenges.

Together, the Lunar New Year Celebration, Good Fire, and Black Spaces invite reflection on the enduring strength of culture, the responsibility of stewardship, and the ways in which renewal is practiced, protected, and passed forward.

Access to this celebration is just $10, giving visitors the chance to explore the Lunar New Year festivities along with OMCA’s special exhibitions. Members enjoy free admission, allowing them to fully experience these galleries and programs while supporting the Museum’s ongoing work to celebrate and preserve California’s diverse cultures.