Hong Kong 2026 public holiday guide
Hong Kong’s general holidays are governed by the General Holidays Ordinance and differ from Mainland China’s system. Typical holidays include New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year, Good Friday and Easter-related days, Ching Ming, the Birthday of the Buddha, Labour Day, Tuen Ng, Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day, the day after Mid-Autumn, National Day, Chung Yeung, and Christmas.
If you collaborate with Hong Kong teams, watch Lunar New Year, the Easter long weekend, and the Christmas–New Year stretch. Some holidays that fall on Sunday may have a replacement weekday off.
Use this page to scan 2026 dates for meetings and travel. For employment and banking hours, rely on Hong Kong government and bank notices.
Planning tips
- Lunar New Year: busy borders and packed dining.
- Easter: a useful spring long weekend.
- 1 July and National Day: shifts in public services.
- Christmas/New Year: shopping and travel peaks.
Hong Kong 2026 public holiday table
This 2026 view lists 17 public holiday dates for Hong Kong. The earliest entry is 2026-01-01 (New Year's Day, Thu) and the latest is 2026-12-26 (The first weekday after Christmas Day). The longest consecutive block in the dataset is about 3 days (2026-02-17–2026-02-19). The table below is fully readable without JavaScript.
| Date | Weekday | Holiday |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-01 | Thu | New Year's Day |
| 2026-02-17 | Tue | Spring Festival |
| 2026-02-18 | Wed | Spring Festival |
| 2026-02-19 | Thu | Spring Festival |
| 2026-04-03 | Fri | Good Friday |
| 2026-04-04 | Sat | The day following Good Friday |
| 2026-04-06 | Mon | The day following Ching Ming Festival |
| 2026-04-07 | Tue | The day following Easter Monday |
| 2026-05-01 | Fri | Labour Day |
| 2026-05-25 | Mon | The day following the Birthday of the Buddha |
| 2026-06-19 | Fri | Tuen Ng Festival |
| 2026-07-01 | Wed | Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day |
| 2026-09-26 | Sat | The day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival |
| 2026-10-01 | Thu | National Day |
| 2026-10-19 | Mon | The day following Chung Yeung Festival |
| 2026-12-25 | Fri | Christmas Day |
| 2026-12-26 | Sat | The first weekday after Christmas Day |
Note: Compiled from public notices for planning. Confirm critical dates with official sources.
Two holiday lists, and the gap that shows up in contracts
Hong Kong runs two parallel holiday regimes and confusing them is the single most common mistake newcomers make. General holidays, set by the Holidays Ordinance, are what people mean when they say bank holidays. That list covers every Sunday plus seventeen named days, and it is the calendar banks, government departments, public bodies, schools and most office employers follow.
Statutory holidays, set by the Employment Ordinance, are a shorter list, but they apply to every employee regardless of hours worked or contract type. A retail assistant, a security guard or a restaurant server whose contract grants only statutory holidays has historically had no right to Good Friday or Easter Monday off. That is why an office tower in Central can be dark on a Friday while every shop at its base is trading normally with a full crew.
The gap is being closed. Under a 2021 amendment, statutory holidays increase by one day every two years until they match the general holiday list in 2030. 2026 is one of the step years, and under that timetable Easter Monday becomes a statutory holiday; check the Labour Department listing for the year to confirm how it applies to your staff.
Some related rules matter in practice. An employer cannot pay money in lieu of a statutory holiday. If a statutory holiday falls on an employee rest day, a substitute day must be given on the following day. Employees engaged under a continuous contract for at least three months are entitled to holiday pay. Foreign domestic helpers are covered by the Employment Ordinance too, which employer households regularly overlook when planning family travel around a long weekend.
How 2026 is shaped
The distribution across 2026 is lopsided. January gives one day, April is crowded, May through July offers a single day each month, late September and early October run together, a Monday arrives in mid October, and then nothing until Christmas. Two clusters deserve advance planning: the first week of April and the stretch from 25 September to 3 October.
- Thursday 1 January, New Year Day
- Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 February, Lunar New Year
- Friday 3 April, Good Friday
- Saturday 4 April, Ching Ming Festival
- Monday 6 April, Easter Monday
- Friday 1 May, Labour Day
- Sunday 24 May, Birthday of the Buddha
- Wednesday 1 July, HKSAR Establishment Day
- Friday 25 September, Mid-Autumn Festival holiday
- Thursday 1 to Saturday 3 October, National Day
- Monday 19 October, Chung Yeung Festival
- Friday 25 December, Christmas Day
- Saturday 26 December, the first weekday after Christmas
Lunar New Year, when the city half closes
The 2026 Lunar New Year holiday runs Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 February, with the first day of the lunar year on 17 February. Note that Lunar New Year Eve, Monday 16 February, is a normal working day in law, even though a great many employers release staff at lunchtime. Restaurants pivot to reunion dinner service in the late afternoon and the business districts empty early.
Hong Kong does not shut the way the mainland does. Malls, cinemas, the theme parks and the MTR keep running, and hotels are full. What stops is the unglamorous layer: wet market stalls close in numbers from the first to the third day, so fresh vegetables and pork get scarce and dearer, and many small family businesses take the week. Restaurants commonly add a festive surcharge or switch to a set menu over the period, which is standard practice rather than opportunism.
If you are in town, the Victoria Park flower market in the days before is the best free spectacle in the city, particularly the last night when prices collapse before closing. The first day brings a floats parade, the second an evening fireworks display over the harbour, and the third the tradition of turning the pinwheels at Che Kung Temple in Sha Tin, with race meetings at Sha Tin Racecourse the same day. The MTR runs through the night on New Year Eve.
On the office side, expect a visible slowdown in the week before rather than a hard stop. Deals are pushed, and the first day back involves the exchange of lai see, red packets given by married colleagues and by managers to unmarried staff, in even-numbered amounts, avoiding anything with a four in it.
An unusually crowded April
Good Friday falls on 3 April 2026, Ching Ming on Saturday 4 April, and Easter Monday on 6 April. The collision matters. Ching Ming, the grave-sweeping festival, lands on a Saturday and inside the Easter weekend, so the two observances that would otherwise have generated separate days off are compressed into one long weekend. A five-day-week employee gets Friday through Monday and no more.
For anyone with a transaction in flight, that means four consecutive days with no Hong Kong dollar clearing, no counter banking, no notarisation and no court filing, from 3 April to 6 April inclusive. The realistic cut-off is Thursday 2 April.
On Ching Ming itself, the cemeteries at Wo Hop Shek, Chai Wan and Tseung Kwan O draw heavy crowds. The Transport Department adds special bus routes and imposes temporary traffic arrangements around the burial grounds, and access roads can be closed to private cars. If you are driving anywhere in the northern New Territories that morning, budget extra time.
May Day to the handover anniversary
Labour Day on Friday 1 May attaches to the weekend and coincides with the mainland five-day break, which reliably pushes visitor numbers up in Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay and on Lantau. Ferries to the outlying islands add sailings and still queue.
The Birthday of the Buddha falls on Sunday 24 May 2026. Because it lands on a Sunday, office workers on a five-day week gain nothing from it, which is worth remembering when you plan annual leave. The observances go ahead regardless: bathing-the-Buddha ceremonies at Po Lin Monastery on Lantau, and the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, which is held on the same day and is the most distinctive thing on the Hong Kong festival calendar. Children costumed as deities are carried above the crowd on concealed supports in the piu sik parade, and the night ends with competitors scrambling up a tower of buns. The ferry queue at Central Pier 5 that morning is long enough that extra sailings are normally announced in advance.
HKSAR Establishment Day on Wednesday 1 July marks the 1997 handover and sits awkwardly mid-week. There is a flag-raising ceremony at Golden Bauhinia Square in the morning, and in some years an evening harbour display. Shops and transport run as usual while government and banking stop.
The autumn run
One detail about Mid-Autumn confuses visitors every year: the festival is celebrated on the night of the full moon, but the Hong Kong holiday is conventionally the day after, so that people who stayed out looking at the moon can recover. In 2026 that holiday sits on Friday 25 September.
The event worth rearranging an evening for is the Tai Hang fire dragon dance, held over three nights around the festival in a small grid of streets in Tai Hang. A long straw dragon studded with burning incense sticks is carried through lanes barely wide enough for it. It is recognised as national intangible cultural heritage, and the viewing is genuinely uncomfortable and genuinely worth it. Lantern displays run concurrently in Victoria Park.
National Day covers Thursday 1 to Saturday 3 October and overlaps the mainland Golden Week, which makes it the densest inbound travel window of the second half of the year. Border crossings, hotels and the main retail districts operate at capacity. Anyone coordinating with mainland counterparties should note the asymmetry: Hong Kong banks and offices are back on Monday 5 October while the mainland block continues to 7 October.
Chung Yeung on Monday 19 October is the autumn counterpart to Ching Ming, combining grave visits with the tradition of climbing to high ground. Lion Rock, Kowloon Peak and the Peak trails are busier than usual that morning.
Christmas and the year-end
Christmas Day on Friday 25 December and the following day on Saturday 26 December are consecutive general holidays. Christmas is a far larger public occasion here than across the boundary: the Harbour City and Central light installations go up in late November, malls extend trading hours, and Christmas Eve dinner reservations at anything decent disappear weeks ahead, usually on a fixed festive menu.
The ordinance calls 26 December the first weekday after Christmas Day, an inherited piece of English drafting for what everyone else calls Boxing Day. In 2026 it falls on a Saturday, so the year ends without the extra weekday that a mid-week Christmas would have produced.
New Year Eve countdown crowds around the harbour are heavy enough that the MTR extends service overnight and the police close streets in Tsim Sha Tsui and Wan Chai from early evening. Allow well over the usual time to cross the harbour.
Weather is part of the schedule
Hong Kong has a second, unpredictable holiday mechanism: severe weather. When the Observatory issues a tropical cyclone warning signal number 8 or above, or a black rainstorm warning, schools close, most commercial activity suspends, and employers must not require ordinary employees to attend work while the signal is in force. Staff are generally expected back within about two hours of cancellation, unless the government announces extreme conditions, which extends that window.
Typhoon season runs roughly May to October and peaks around September, squarely across the Mid-Autumn and National Day period. Ferries, cross-boundary coaches and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge shuttle stop under a number 8 signal. The airport typically stays open while flights are cancelled in volume, which is a distinction that matters if you are transiting.
One change catches out people working from old assumptions: the stock exchange no longer halts for severe weather. Trading and settlement continue under a typhoon signal, so a number 8 day is not a market holiday.
Cross-boundary planning and the usual mistakes
Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland do not share a calendar, and 2026 makes the divergence obvious. Lunar New Year is three days here and eight days on the mainland, ending 22 February. National Day is three days here and seven there. Hong Kong keeps Good Friday, Easter Monday and Christmas, which the mainland does not observe at all. A Greater Bay Area team maintaining one calendar will misroster.
The assumption that every employee gets all seventeen days is wrong; entitlement depends on the contract, and the legal floor is the shorter statutory list. The assumption that a holiday falling on a weekend rolls over is also wrong; there is no blanket substitution rule for general holidays, as the Sunday Buddha birthday and Saturday Boxing Day in 2026 demonstrate.
A third trap is reading holiday closures as a citywide shutdown. Attractions, malls, the MTR and restaurants run at full tilt or busier. What stops is the institutional layer: government counters, immigration services, bank branches, clearing, courts and law firms.
Finally, lunar and ecclesiastical dates move against the Gregorian calendar every year, Easter more than most, and the government can adjust arrangements by notice. Use these dates to plan, then verify against the general holidays list published in the Gazette and the Labour Department statutory holiday listing for the year.
- Check whether a contract grants general holidays or only statutory holidays before promising anyone a day off
- April 3 to 6 is a four-day clearing gap; settle payments by Thursday 2 April
- Hong Kong returns to work on 5 October while mainland counterparties are still away
- A number 8 signal suspends work but no longer suspends securities trading
- Foreign domestic helpers have their own rest day and holiday entitlements under the Employment Ordinance
Cross-border planning notes
Hong Kong keeps several Christian general holidays that Mainland China does not. It is close to, but not identical with, Macau. Finance and trade teams should watch Lunar New Year, Easter, and Christmas–New Year.
Where these dates come from
Hong Kong dates follow the General Holidays Ordinance and the Labour Department / gov.hk list.
Primary references for verification
Hong Kong FAQ
What is the difference between general holidays and statutory holidays?
General holidays come from the Holidays Ordinance and form the list that banks, government departments, public bodies and most offices observe, seventeen named days plus every Sunday. Statutory holidays come from the Employment Ordinance, apply to every employee regardless of contract type, and form a shorter list. The practical effect is that staff whose contracts grant only statutory holidays may still work on days like Good Friday. A 2021 amendment is phasing the statutory list up until the two match in 2030.
How many days off does Hong Kong get for Lunar New Year 2026?
Three: Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 February, with the first day of the lunar year on 17 February. Lunar New Year Eve on Monday 16 February is legally a working day, though many employers let staff leave at midday. This is very different from the mainland, where the 2026 block runs from 15 February to 23 February and involves make-up working weekends. If you coordinate across the boundary, check both calendars rather than assuming your counterpart returns when you do.
Do holidays roll over when they fall on a weekend?
Not automatically. The general holiday list gives fixed dates with no blanket substitution rule, so the Birthday of the Buddha on Sunday 24 May 2026 and the day after Christmas on Saturday 26 December produce no extra weekday off for someone already working a five-day week. There is a narrower protection under the Employment Ordinance: if a statutory holiday falls on an employee rest day, the employer must grant a substitute on the following day. That is an individual entitlement, not a change to the public list.
Do I have to go to work during a typhoon signal 8?
No. While a tropical cyclone warning signal number 8 or above is in force, or during a black rainstorm warning, employers must not require ordinary employees to attend work, schools close and most commercial activity suspends. Employees are normally expected to return within about two hours of the signal being cancelled, unless the government announces extreme conditions. One thing has changed from the old pattern: the stock exchange now keeps trading through severe weather, so markets are open even when much of the city is not.
What happens to banking and the markets on a general holiday?
Bank branches close, so counter service, account opening appointments, cheque clearing and Hong Kong dollar settlement all pause, while internet banking and ATMs continue. Securities markets follow the exchange trading calendar, and Stock Connect trading is suspended, including on days when only one side of the boundary is on holiday. For anything time sensitive, treat the afternoon of the last business day before the break as the genuine deadline, particularly around the four-day Easter and Ching Ming cluster in April.
When is the worst time to visit if I dislike crowds?
The first three days of Lunar New Year, the Labour Day weekend at the start of May, and the National Day period from 1 to 3 October, all of which coincide with mainland breaks and push visitor volumes to their annual peaks at border crossings, hotels and shopping districts. Late September also carries typhoon risk. Quieter and pleasant alternatives are the second half of October after Chung Yeung, and the stretch from mid January until the week before Lunar New Year.
Same as Mainland China?
No. Hong Kong keeps several Christian-related general holidays and a different substitution practice.
Are banks closed?
Most banks close on general holidays; check each bank for exceptions.
Is Buddha’s Birthday a fixed Gregorian date?
No. It follows the lunar calendar.