Hong Kong has an interesting mix of public holidays and festivals that reflect its rich history as an ex-British colony that has a strong Chinese traditional influence. This means the holidays in Hong Kong are a mix of traditional Chinese, traditional British and modern ones. In this calendar, official government-mandated holidays are described as well as traditional and cultural ones.
Some of the notable holidays and festivals include:
1. Chinese New Year: Falling on the first day of the lunar calendar, it is the most important traditional festival for Chinese people.
2. Ching Ming Festival: Also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, it is a time for families to pay respects to their ancestors by cleaning and decorating their graves.
But at the same time, Easter and Christmas are also not just official holidays but also widely celebrated.
HK is even more ex-British than Singapore in that here we also have Boxing Day on the 26th of December!
Official holidays are those that are “gazetted” and are a day off for working people, what might be called Bank Holidays or mandatory days off in other countries.
But there are also traditional festivals that are celebrated at home or in the streets, and well worth participating in, which don’t automatically get you a day away from the office. These include the Ghost Festival and Chinese Valentines (of which there are two different versions, read on for more about those).
The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. It is a time when it is believed that the gates of hell are opened, allowing the spirits of the dead to visit the living world. Families offer food and incense to appease the wandering spirits and ensure their peace.
Chinese Valentine’s Day, or Qixi Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and is also known as the Double Seventh Festival. It is a day for celebrating romantic love, inspired by the legend of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl who were allowed to be reunited on this day each year. People will often wear red clothes, decorate their homes with lanterns, and enjoy special foods like rice dumplings and milk tea. Some may also exchange love notes or small gifts with their loved ones.
Sometimes the government parks department, the LCSD, will set up lanterns or special displays in popular places for people to commemorate this traditional Chinese Valentine’s day.
There is another “Chinese Valentine’s day” which is the 15th day of the lunar new year, this one is popular as well because it is often around the same time of year as the western Valentine’s days because the lunar calendar floats against the western one.
Here is the list of holidays, I’ve marked with a star (*) the ones that are a day off from work or school, the gazetted holidays.
| Festival Name | Romanized Cantonese | Chinese Name | Rule | Gregorian Date 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day* | 1st of the year | Wednesday, January 1, 2025 | ||
| Lunar New Year* | Sin Jyu | 年 | 1st day of the 1st lunar month | 29 January Wednesday |
| Lunar New Year 2nd day* | Sin Jyu Yat | 年第二日 | 2nd day of the 1st lunar month | 30 January Thursday |
| Lunar New Year 3rd day* | Sin Jyu Saam | 年第三日 | 3rd day of the 1st lunar month | 31 January Friday |
| Lantern Festival | Yuen Siu | 元宵節 | 15th day of the 1st lunar month | Wednesday, 12 February 2025 |
| Beating Bad Guys Day (Qinglong Festival) | Ching Lung Jor Sin | 青龍節 | 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month | Saturday, 1 March 2025 |
| Ching Ming Festival or Grave Sweeping * | Ching Ming | 清明節 | 15th day after the Spring Equinox | Friday, 4 April 2025 |
| Good Friday* | Variable date, Friday before Easter Sunday | Friday, 18 April 2025 | ||
| Tin Hau’s Birthday | Tin Hau Jor Sin | 天后誕辰 | 23rd day of the 3rd lunar month | Sunday, 20 April 2025 |
| Easter Monday / Double Third Festival * | Variable date, Monday after Easter Sunday | Monday, 21 April 2025 | ||
| Labour Day * | May 1st | Thursday, 1 May 2025 | ||
| Buddha’s Birthday / Cheung Chau Bun Festival 2025 * | Fat Sin | 佛誕 | 8th day of the 4th lunar month | Monday, 5 May 2025 |
| Mother’s Day | Sunday, 11 May 2025 | |||
| Dragon Boat Festival * | Tuen Ng | 端午節 | 5th day of the 5th lunar month | Saturday, 31 May 2025 |
| Father’s Day | Sunday, 15 June 2025 | |||
| Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day * | 香港特別行政區成立紀念日 | July 1st | Tuesday, 1 July 2025 | |
| Ghost Festival | Yu Lan | 盂蘭節 | 15th day of the 7th lunar month | Saturday, 6 September 2025 |
| National Day * | 國慶日 | 1st October | Wednesday, 1 October 2025 | |
| Mid-Autumn Festival | Jung Chau | 中秋節 | 15th day of the 8th lunar month | Monday, 6 October 2025 |
| Day after Mid Autumn Festival * | Tuesday, 7 October 2025 | |||
| Chung Yeung Festival * | Chung Yeung | 重陽節 | 9th day of the 9th lunar month | Wednesday, 29 October 2025 |
| Christmas Day * | 聖誕節 | December 25th | Thursday, 25 December 2025 | |
| Boxing Day * | 聖誕 後第一天 | December 26th | December 26, 2025 |
Buddha’s Birthday: This is also the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, which is not a Buddhist festival at all but a Taoist one, but has in recent years been allowed to “float” to match Buddha …’s birthday, making it a combined celebration for both religions. And anyway, it is a day off and so people can go to Cheung Chau to participate. The Cheung Chau Bun Festival is marked by the steaming of buns, the climbing of the towers, and the procession of flats with children dressed up as historical or topical figures.
Some of these are “traditional, not public” which means they are not a day off for office workers, nor will banks and offices be closed, but people, particularly older and more traditional folk, will mark those days.
Generally, traditional holidays follow the Chinese lunar calendar, you can convert from that to the Western or “Gregorian” calendar using this helpful chart from the Hong Kong Observatory. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/gts/time/calendar/pdf/files/2025e.pdf