Time to Celebrate!
Whether you know it as Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Tết, or something else, the Lunar New Year is a major holiday celebrated throughout the world, especially in parts of Asia. While most western nations regard the first of January as the start of the new year, for many communities around the world the year begins in late January or early February, according to the lunar calendar. The celebrations are often more than just one night: In China, for example, celebrations continue for two weeks, culminating in the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the lunar new year.
To honor the new year, decorative items are placed in homes, workplaces, and public spaces. These range from items designed with the Chinese zodiac in mind, to symbols that represent good fortune and health. Many places celebrate with firecrackers or fireworks, and people hang or carry glowing lanterns.
Here, we’ve gathered some of the best 3D models to print for your Lunar New Year celebrations. We’ve divided our list up into decorations for your home and prints celebrating some of the signs of the zodiac.
If you see something perfect for your celebrations but don’t want to print it yourself, check out Craftcloud. With professional suppliers around the world shipping to your door, your new year will surely be prosperous!
Now, on to the list!
Decorations
Let’s start with an array of items to decorate your home for the Spring Festival. From lanterns and lucky charms to cookie cutters, there’s something for everyone!
Lantern
This is a lantern designed with the symbol of good luck for the Lunar New Year. There is also an image of a fish, which symbolizes prosperity in Asian traditions. Finally, the lotus symbolizes tranquility.
The model has been designed to fit an LED tealight candle when printed to scale, and the designer recommends printing with 20% infill. Why not try printing this in a wood filament to recreate the beautiful appearance of bamboo?
- Who designed it? Jenuinely Yuself
- How printable/popular is it? This design has over 110 likes, and one maker has shared a photo of their successful print.
- Where to get it? MyMiniFactory
Vase
This elegant vase is embellished with the Chinese characters for openness and richness – perfect sentiments to take with you into the new year.
You’ll likely want to activate vase mode to be able to print this without internal supports and choose a smaller layer height to highlight the detail of the embellishments. The effect of a gradient filament (shown above) looks beautiful at the scale of the vase, as it’s large enough to fully showcase the color change!
- Who designed it? stronghero3d
- How printable/popular is it? This file has over 1,900 views, with 212 downloads and 11 likes.
- Where to get it? Cults
Lantern Cookie Cutter
This elegantly shaped lamp cookie cutter puts a fun (and delicious) spin on your Lunar New Year celebrations. It’s designed by 3D printing and baking enthusiast OogiMe, who has over fifty designs for the kitchen.
Print it in lucky red for baking success but don’t forget to use a food-safe filament.
Who designed it? OogiMe
How printable/popular is it? It has had over 2,100 views so far and more than 250 downloads.
Where to get it? Cults
Folding Fan
This folding fan isn’t just decorative, it can cool you down in the summer (or during a spicy celebration dinner)! The file available to download is the red fan shown above, which includes symbols for prosperity and abundance.
This design prints in one go, with the fan in the closed position. There’s also a file to print the display stand to show off your creation. The designer notes that if the pieces are a bit loose, you can use fishing wire to secure the fan.
- Who designed it? paulsiew31
- How printable/popular is it? Four makers have successfully printed this fan, so it’s not as tricky as it looks!
- Where to get it? Thingiverse
Blessing Sign
This red and gold-colored sign features a stylized Chinese character “Fu” which means “good fortune”. This is a traditional symbol used in Lunar New Year decorations.
To achieve the dual-color appearance, pause your print when the flat base is finished printing and switch the filament color before continuing. If that sounds like too much work, painting the embossed sections afterward will work nearly as well!
Want to resize this model? The designer recommends keeping the Z-height as is so that the file doesn’t get too thin or thick with resizing.
LED Lantern
This beautiful design will add atmosphere to your new year’s celebrations, and through the rest of the year!
This is a simple lantern designed to hold an LED inside, so it gives the appearance of a real lantern, without the fire risk! The creator recommends using a raft for printing, a layer height of 0.2 mm, and an infill of 25%.
- Who designed it? LGBU
- How printable/popular is it? This file has over 1,200 views and 46 downloads to date.
- Where to get it? Cults
Lion Statue
This magnificent statue is crafted in the form of a lion’s head. During Lunar New Year, the lion dance is commonly performed to chase away evil spirits and bring good fortune.
Lions symbolize protection and strength, so they’re a good model to have around, and the 23 makers who’ve shared their prints agree! One maker beautifully painted their lion with acrylics while another printed it in rainbow PLA.
- Who designed it? cncmodels4you
- How printable/popular is it? There are over 3,000 likes, 23 Makes, and 5 Remixes for this model. Makers have been successful using supports for the overhangs.
- Where to get it? Thingiverse
Fortune Trinkets
Like the sign we’ve seen, the character “Fu” on this trinket represents good fortune. These trinkets can be hung around your home during Lunar New Year to bring luck in the coming year. Print a small one (or a few) to use as a keychain and carry your luck with you always!
- Who designed it? psync
- How printable/popular is it? There are four Makes for this model, as well as two Remixes with different characters.
- Where to get it? Thingiverse
Signs of the Zodiac
The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and last but not least, the pig! The same animals are celebrated by many other countries with only a few variations (for example, in Vietnam the Year of the Rabbit becomes the Year of the Cat).
The Lunar New Year in 2021 says goodbye to the Year of the Rat and welcomes the Year of the Ox. Here we have a few models celebrating the animals of the zodiac. Print an ox for 2021, or perhaps the animal of the year you were born!
Simple
This set of adorable animals were designed with the Lunar New Year in mind, including models of all 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.
These models will all be quick and easy prints, and would make a great collection to display or to introduce children to the signs of the zodiac!
- Who designed it? Eunny
- How printable/popular is it? This model has 328 likes, and 5 people have posted their Makes of some of the animals.
- Where to get it? Thingiverse
Articulated Monkey Figurine
The creator designed this monkey figurine a few years ago for the Year of the Monkey. The monkey is celebrated as a symbol of cleverness in Asian cultures, and it’s said that children born in the Year of the Monkey have the defining trait of intelligence.
As for the model, this complex monkey prints from an impressive 24 files! There are two files supplied for the monkey’s tail, so you might have to experiment to see which works better for you (the one-piece model might be difficult to bend after printing).
Dragon Statuette
Different dragons are significant to many different cultures around the world. Many deities in Asian traditions had dragons as their companions. The Chinese dragon symbolizes good fortune, strength, and independence.
This grand model of a Chinese dragon includes a plinth to display it, but some makers have opted to remove the plinth and print the dragon alone, in all its glory.
- Who designed it? boris3dstudio
- How printable/popular is it? This design has been downloaded over 12,000 times! Four users have shared their Makes so far and there’s one Remix of just the head.
- Where to get it? Thingiverse
Year of the Ox
Finally, we couldn’t make a list for the Lunar New Year in 2021 without celebrating the Year of the Ox! Oxen might not be your first thought when it comes to your next printing project, but this beautifully simple decoration might change your mind.
There are two designs to choose from, with the ox either standing or lying down, and both feature the character “Fu” for good fortune. The designer suggests adding a tassel to hang this as a decoration, or even just using it as a very lucky coaster!
- Who designed it? happyberry
- How printable/popular is it? This model was only uploaded very recently, and there are already two Makes to mark the Year of the Ox.
- Where to get it? Thingiverse
Lead image source: drachenfire84 via MyMiniFactory
License: The text of "Lunar New Year 3D Prints: 12 Great Models to Celebrate" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.