Tuesday 17 February 2026 is the first day of the Year of the Horse. That single fact is where most planning errors begin. Teams treat “Lunar New Year” as one regional event and then discover that a Shenzhen plant is still dark while a Hong Kong dealing desk is already back, or that a Vietnamese factory quoted “three official days” and meant eleven calendar days of downtime.
Length, not the lunar date, is the planning variable
| Territory | Typical 2026 public-holiday span | What the gazette does not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Mainland China | 15–23 February once weekend swaps are counted | Factories wind down earlier; return is staggered; makeup Saturdays may sit outside the block |
| Hong Kong | 17–19 February | Markets and government close; restaurants get busier |
| Macau | Three mandatory days, close to Hong Kong | Casinos stay open; a crowded street is not a government counter |
| Taiwan | Usually includes Lunar New Year’s Eve and several days after | Makeup rules are not mainland tiaoxiu |
| South Korea | Seollal about 16–18 February | Expressway homecoming; substitute-holiday rules if a day hits Sunday |
| Singapore | Two gazetted Chinese New Year days, 17–18 February | Malay and Indian colleagues are not automatically off |
| Vietnam | A short statutory Tết list | Plant shutdowns routinely overrun the gazette |
| Japan | Not a national holiday | 11 February and 23 February are unrelated single days |
The South China–Vietnam freeze
When the mainland block runs to 22 February and Vietnamese plants are still restarting, freight between the Pearl River Delta and northern Vietnam stops in both directions. Finish shipments and payments in early February. Letters of credit, customs filings and inspections pile into the first week back; put anything that cannot slip into week two.
Hong Kong and Macau are back on Friday 20 February while most mainland offices are still off. A Greater Bay Area firm that keeps one “CNY leave” row will spend that Friday watching Hong Kong chase empty mainland inboxes.
Do not reuse family customs as logistics rules
Mainland chunyun stretches either side of the official block; 12306 releases tickets on a published booking horizon and popular trains vanish in minutes. Korea’s peak is an expressway story. Singapore’s two days are an urban pause, not a national halt. Vietnam’s homecoming resembles China’s in scale and not in food, taboos or the day shops reopen. Japanese colleagues usually know the festival exists and underestimate its length; put the whole mainland window on the shared calendar and freeze scope ten days out.
The mechanism behind the mainland length is tiaoxiu. If the same team also covers Golden Week, read China and Japan in 2026. Confirm each territory against its own labour or cabinet notice before you buy non-refundable tickets or lock a production slot.
A working checklist for the first two weeks of February
- By 6 February: last date you should still be chasing a mainland or Vietnamese signature.
- By 10 February: freeze scope, publish the coverage note, name deputies.
- 17–19 February: Hong Kong and Macau public offices closed; casinos and malls are not a proxy.
- 20 February: Hong Kong finance is typically back; mainland offices are usually not.
- 23 February: first day you may get a full mainland roster; do not book customer UAT on that Monday.
- Week of 2 March: safer for anything that needed both South China and northern Vietnam.
None of this is a reason to cancel a personal trip that you want to take. It is a reason not to schedule a joint acceptance test, a bank transfer that must clear, or a non-refundable inbound audit in the same fortnight. Families travel; ledgers do not have to.