The seventh day of Chinese New Year is traditionally called Renri, meaning “People’s Day.”
Renri is the seventh day of Zhengyue, the first month of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. In Chinese mythology, the goddess Nüwa created different creatures on successive days, with human beings created on the seventh. The date therefore became a shared birthday for humanity.
This belief fits a broader sequence of traditional “birthdays”: the first day belongs to chickens, the second to dogs, the third to pigs, the fourth to sheep, the fifth to cattle, and the sixth to horses. Renri follows that sequence as the human day, rather than being a separate solar-calendar holiday.
Customs have varied by region and era. Historical observances included wearing human-shaped ornaments called rensheng, climbing mountains, composing poetry, and eating special foods such as seven-vegetable soup or congee. Renri is now generally observed as part of the wider Chinese New Year period. Dongzhi is the winter solstice festival, Qingming is a spring observance, and Lichun marks the beginning of spring in the traditional seasonal system.