Sunrise Emoji

A sun rising over the horizon, usually with water in the foreground and warm orange-pink light spreading across the sky. This is sunrise, not sunset, though the two look nearly identical on most platforms and people use 🌅 for both.

In texting, 🌅 carries a weight that goes beyond "pretty sky." It's the new-beginning emoji. Fresh starts, turning points, hope after a rough stretch. "New chapter 🌅" is a full sentence that people actually post. It shows up after breakups, job changes, moves to new cities, and January 1 every year without fail.

But there's a second life to this emoji now, driven by wellness culture. Since neuroscientist Andrew Huberman popularized the idea that viewing morning sunlight increases cortisol by 50% and improves sleep 14-16 hours later, 🌅 has become the unofficial mascot of the "I wake up at 5am" crowd. The 5am Club TikTok trend, the "miracle morning" routine, the whole productivity hustle aesthetic that films sunrise walks and cold plunges. 🌅 is the emoji of people who want you to know they saw the sun before you did.

And in Japan, sunrise has sacred meaning. Hatsuhinode (初日の出), the first sunrise of the New Year, draws millions of people to mountains, coastlines, and observation decks every January 1. In Shinto belief, the New Year gods (toshigami) arrive with the first light. Making a wish at hatsuhinode is believed to grant it.

🌅 peaks in two places: travel content and self-improvement content. On Instagram, it's one of the top nature emojis, tagging beach sunrises, 🏕️ camping mornings, and golden-hour photography. The #sunrise hashtag has hundreds of millions of posts. Most of them are sunsets. Nobody can tell the difference.

The wellness TikTok wave gave 🌅 a second career. The #5amclub hashtag has millions of views. Robin Sharma's book The 5am Club (2018) sold 15 million copies and spawned a vlog format where people share their "5-to-9 before the 9-to-5." Huberman's morning sunlight protocol added a neuroscience veneer: 5-10 minutes of direct sunrise viewing on clear days, 20-30 minutes on overcast days. The protocol went viral. The emoji followed.

But the backlash is real too. Sleep researchers push back, noting that one-third of Americans don't get enough sleep already, and waking at 5am just to post about it causes more harm than the sunrise viewing fixes. The emoji has become a battleground between morning-routine evangelists and everyone who thinks they need to stop.

In photography, the sunrise golden hour (roughly the first 45 minutes after the sun clears the horizon) is prized for its soft, warm, directional light). Sunrise golden hour tends to produce more fog and mist than sunset, which photographers love. But sunset is far more popular for shoots because, practically speaking, nobody wants to be photo-ready at 5:30am.

Sunrise has been sacred since before recorded history. The ancient Egyptians built their entire religious system around Ra, the sun god who was reborn each dawn and died each sunset, traveling through the underworld overnight. Their temples were oriented to catch the first rays. The Great Sphinx of Giza faces directly east, toward the rising sun.

In Hinduism, the sunrise is considered a sacred time for prayer and meditation. The first rays are believed to have healing properties. Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation), the foundational yoga sequence, is traditionally performed at sunrise, facing east. In Islam, Fajr, the first of five daily prayers, is performed at dawn before the sun rises.

In Japan, hatsuhinode (初日の出) is one of the most widely practiced New Year traditions. Millions of people travel to mountains, coastlines, and observation decks to watch the first sunrise of the year. In Shinto belief, the New Year gods (toshigami) appear with the first light and bless those who witness it. The tradition traces back to the Heian period (794-1185), when nobles addressed prayers to Amaterasu, the sun goddess. By the Meiji period (1868-1912), it had become a nationwide practice.

As for the emoji: 🌅 was added in Unicode 6.0 (2010) and Emoji 1.0 (2015). It's part of a set of time-of-day emojis that includes 🌄 Sunrise Over Mountains, 🌇 Sunset, and 🌆 Cityscape at Dusk. Emojipedia notes that it "can be difficult to distinguish from a sunset in some versions."

1. -2500Great Sphinx of Giza built facing east, toward the rising sun↗
2. 794Japanese hatsuhinode tradition begins in the Heian period with prayers to Amaterasu↗
3. 2010🌅 Sunrise added to Unicode 6.0 as U+1F305↗
4. 2018Robin Sharma's The 5am Club published, sells 15 million copies↗
5. 2021Andrew Huberman's morning sunlight protocol goes viral on Twitter/X↗

In Japan, sunrise isn't just pretty. It's a religious event. Hatsuhinode (first sunrise) draws millions of people out on January 1 every year. Popular spots include Lake Kawaguchi with Mount Fuji in the background, the torii gate at Oarai Isosaki Shrine rising from the sea, and observation decks at Tokyo Tower and Skytree (both require advance reservations). The tradition is rooted in Shinto belief that toshigami (New Year gods) arrive with the first light.

In Hindu cultures, sunrise is prayer time. Surya Namaskar is performed facing east at dawn. The Chhath festival in India and Nepal involves fasting and making offerings to the rising sun from riverbeds. In Buddhism, the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment at sunrise.

In American and Western wellness culture, sunrise has been co-opted by the productivity movement. The 5am Club, Huberman's sunlight protocol, and the "morning routine" TikTok genre have turned watching the sunrise into a performative act. There's nothing wrong with watching the sunrise. But posting a 4:47am alarm screenshot with 🌅 and a motivational quote is now its own micro-genre, and it annoys roughly half the internet.

In travel culture, certain sunrises have become pilgrimage-level events. Angkor Wat at sunrise (reflected in the temple ponds), Bali's Mount Batur at sunrise (after a 2am hike), and Santorini are the holy trinity of Instagram sunrise content.

• •Sunset beats sunrise in Google search interest by about 1.6x. More people are awake for sunsets, and photographers prefer sunset because nobody wants to be camera-ready at 5:30am. But sunrise has been closing the gap since 2024, likely driven by the Huberman protocol and 5am Club trends.
• •Robin Sharma's The 5am Club sold 15 million copies. On TikTok, #morningroutine has nearly 25 billion views. Sleep researchers aren't thrilled: one-third of Americans already don't get enough rest, and waking at 5am to post about it makes the problem worse.
• •The Great Sphinx of Giza faces due east, directly toward the rising sun. The ancient Egyptians built their entire religious calendar around Ra's daily death (sunset) and rebirth (sunrise).
• •For the Lion King live-action remake (2019), the film crew captured a real sunrise at Kenya's Masai Mara while playing "Circle of Life." It was the only shot in the otherwise CGI film that used real footage.
• •Photographers call the first 45 minutes after sunrise the "golden hour)" (also called "magic hour"). Sunrise golden hour produces more fog and mist than the equivalent sunset period, which photographers prefer for atmosphere. But sunset is still far more popular because logistics.
• •In Japan, hatsuhinode (first sunrise of the New Year) is such a major tradition that Tokyo Tower and Skytree sell advance tickets for January 1 viewing access. The tradition dates to the Heian period (794-1185) and is rooted in Shinto belief that the New Year gods arrive with the first light.

• •Before Sunrise (1995): Richard Linklater's film where Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) spend one night walking around Vienna after meeting on a train. The film is literally named for the sunrise that ends their night together and forces them to part. It's widely considered one of the best romantic films ever made and spawned two sequels (Before Sunset, Before Midnight), making it a trilogy structured around times of day.
• •The Lion King opening sequence (1994): "Circle of Life" plays over an African sunrise as animals march to see newborn Simba. It's one of the most recognizable film openings ever. For the 2019 live-action remake, the crew captured a real sunrise in Kenya's Masai Mara while playing the song. It was the only live-action shot in the CGI film.
• •Andrew Huberman's sunrise protocol (2021-present): Stanford neuroscientist's recommendation to view morning sunlight within the first hours of waking became one of the most viral wellness claims online. His tweet that morning sunlight "increases cortisol by 50%" spread across every platform. 5-10 minutes on clear days, 20-30 on overcast. It turned sunrise from something you sleep through into something you schedule.
• •The 5am Club by Robin Sharma (2018): the book that sold 15 million copies and launched the TikTok morning-routine trend. #5amclub has millions of views. #morningroutine has nearly 25 billion. The 🌅 emoji became the badge of "I wake up before you do" culture, for better and worse.
• •Hatsuhinode (初日の出): Japan's New Year first-sunrise tradition, rooted in Shinto belief that toshigami (New Year gods) arrive with the first light. Millions of Japanese people travel to observation points every January 1. The tradition dates to the Heian period (794-1185) and remains one of the most widely practiced New Year customs in Japan.
• •Angkor Wat sunrise: the most photographed sunrise in the world. The sun rises behind the five towers of the 12th-century temple and reflects in the pools in front. Getting a good spot requires arriving in the dark around 5am. The scene has been photographed so many times that it's become its own visual cliché, yet people keep going because, in person, it works.

• •U+1F305U+1F305 SUNRISE. No variation selector needed. Stable since Unicode 6.0.
• •Don't confuse with U+1F304U+1F304 🌄 SUNRISE OVER MOUNTAINS or U+1F307U+1F307 🌇 SUNSET. Three different emojis, three different scenes.
• •Common shortcodes: :sunrise::sunrise: (Slack, Discord, GitHub). :sunrise_over_mountains::sunrise_over_mountains: is U+1F304U+1F304.

See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.