Lunar New Year

The dates

Lunar New Year 2027 is Saturday 6 February, the start of the Year of the Goat. New Year's Eve is Friday 5 February, called Giao Thua in Vietnam. The season ends with the Lantern Festival on Saturday 20 February.

The date follows the lunar calendar, so it moves between late January and late February. Public holidays differ by country, as below.

Hong Kong

The government gazetted three public holidays in 2027: Saturday 6 February, Lunar New Year's Day, then Monday 8 February, the third day, and Tuesday 9 February, the fourth day. The second day falls on a Sunday, so the fourth day was made a holiday in its place. That makes a four-day weekend from 6 to 9 February.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board and the government publish the 2027 event dates closer to the season. The 2026 edition shows how the days are laid out:

In 2026 the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ran 14 Lunar New Year fairs and flower markets for seven days, and all of them stayed open overnight on New Year's Eve. The Victoria Park fair in Causeway Bay, with about 400 stalls, was open 8am to midnight on its first two days, until 1am on the three days after, and until 7am the next morning on New Year's Eve. Exit E of Causeway Bay MTR station and Exit A2 of Tin Hau lead to it.

Mong Kok's Flower Market Road is open all year, with over 100 stores and stalls, and its shops are generally closed on the first day of the new year.

Wong Tai Sin Temple closed at 4:30pm on New Year's Eve in 2026, reopened to visitors at 9pm, and let worshippers offer their first incense from 11pm. It then stayed open overnight and through the first day, closing at 9pm. The temple enforced a one-way route and did not allow anyone to return once they left the main altar. Paper offerings and large incense sticks were not allowed. From the second to the fourteenth day the temple opens daily from 7:30am to 6pm. Worshippers who cannot come can use its online blessing system.

In 2026 the Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade ran through Tsim Sha Tsui on the first day, 17 February, along 2.8 km. The harbor fireworks were on the second day, 18 February, at 8pm, lasting about 23 minutes with 31,888 shells over Victoria Harbour. Time Out lists Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Hung Hom as the main viewing areas, the Avenue of Stars, Bauhinia Square and the Central Ferry Piers as specific spots, and West Kowloon Art Park as a less crowded option.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board puts Che Kung Temple in Sha Tin on the second day of the new year, when visitors pray, burn incense, draw fortune sticks and turn the copper windmill clockwise for luck, or take home a pinwheel. The Chinese New Year Race Day at Sha Tin Racecourse is held on the third day, with lion dance performances, a variety show and live music alongside the races. In 2027 the third day is Monday 8 February.

At home, the customs behind the public events are simple. Families eat a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, often poon choi, a communal pot with auspicious ingredients such as black moss and dried oysters, and tong yuen, glutinous rice balls whose round shape signals togetherness. Elders, bosses and married people hand out lai see, red envelopes of lucky money, with the greeting "Kung Hei Fat Choi", and people clean the house beforehand and wear red. The Lam Tsuen wishing trees in the New Territories are for writing a wish on joss paper, tying it to a mandarin and throwing it at the tree. The Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth day, closes the season.

Vietnam and mainland China

Tet is the main Vietnamese holiday. The government approved a seven-day Tet holiday from 4 to 10 February 2027, according to Vietnam News. Vietnam e-visa and visa exemption covers entry.

Giao Thua, the moment the year turns, is considered the most sacred part of Tet. In the days before it families visit ancestors' graves and invite them to celebrate. The first person through the door after midnight is believed to affect the household for the year, a custom called xông đất, so families choose someone whose zodiac sign suits it. Northern families make banh chung, a square sticky rice cake of glutinous rice, mung beans and pork, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled for hours, while southern households make banh tet. Northern homes put out peach blossom, southern homes yellow apricot blossom, and kumquat trees laden with fruit stand for prosperity. In Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Hue Boulevard becomes a pedestrian flower street: in 2026 it ran from 7pm on 15 February to 9pm on 22 February, the sixth day of the new year, and the city began the tradition in 2004.

On the mainland, the 2026 holiday ran nine days, from 15 to 23 February, and the 40-day rush that followed produced a record 9.4 billion trips, according to a Ministry of Transport estimate, of which rail carried 538 million passenger trips. The 2027 holiday schedule was not announced as of mid-October 2026.

Where to sleep

In Hong Kong the base depends on the event. Tsim Sha Tsui is the base for the night parade and the harbor view from the Avenue of Stars. Causeway Bay is the base for the Victoria Park fair and a view on the Island side. Wong Tai Sin is the neighborhood to choose for the temple vigil on New Year's Eve. See where to stay in Hong Kong for five bases, and Hong Kong in 3 days for what to fit around the holiday.

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What to plan around

The main trap is to arrive on the holiday itself. In 2026 the flower fairs ended on the morning of the first day, so arrive by 5 February to see them and the temple on New Year's Eve.

The second is the Mong Kok flower market on the first day of the year, when its shops are generally closed. Go in the days before.