Hong Kong Festivals and Public Holidays

Hong Kong Festivals are major events on a scale hardly understood in the West. During Chinese New Year festivities, there is total disruption of everyday life.

Spring Festival is the most important festival in the year for the Chinese, when families get together and share a sumptuous meal on the eve of the Chinese new year. Homes are festooned with banners and pictures to bring good fortune. Other activities associated with the festival include the lion dance, the dragon-lantern dance and stilt walking.

The following is a selection of Hong Kong Festivals:

January 1 - New Year’s Day

New Year is celebrated in all hotels, restaurants and other places. The whole city is also deck with decorations, from Christmas decor, to New Year decor, and finally to Chinese New Year decor. Three events, one after the other.

January - Dragon Dance and Lion Dance Championships

February
Chinese New Year

It is one of the most important and colourful Chinese Hong Kong Festivals celebrated by the majority of the local population. Three days of celebrations mark Chinese New Year, culminating with a fantastic firework display in Victoria Harbor and a traditional parade.

During ten days of the festival there are a huge number of events celebrating the New Year. The long dragon and lions dance on the streets, crowds visit the temples, lanterns, flowers and entertainment comes alive in the most important squares of the city.

It is also a tradition, when people visit and greet each other with two joined hands closed, saying "Kung Hei Fat Choi" and offering "Lai Si" (red pockets) containing money, which is a way to wish good luck and prosperity throughout the year to friends and relatives.

The whole city is shut for three days as families embark for China, or for restaurants. Shops, offices, factories close for this traditional holiday.

Feb - Lunar New Year Fireworks Display

15th day of the First Moon is the Lanterns Festival, being equally the Valentine's Days in the Chinese tradition. At night, the celebrations continue with colorful lanterns placed around. Small balls of glutinous rice is prepared as dessert, for homophonic reasons and symbolizes the "ribbon of friendship", "family reunion" or "good luck" for the Chinese.

February/March - Spring Lantern Festival

Careful not to be left without a festival, The Spring Lantern Festival begins on the last official day of Chinese New Year. Brightly colored lanterns are strung up around the city and local couples celebrate Chinese Valentines day, if in an undecidedly unromantic manner – with their families

Feb/March - Hong Kong Arts Festival

The annual Arts Festival brings to Hong Kong entertainment a plethora of world class acts offering performances ranging from Shakespeare to modern offerings of top Chinese directors.

March - Hong Kong Flower Show

The most botanic Hong Kong festival of the year which is a big colorful show of flower arrangements, plants and flowers in full bloom, landscape displays and all things botanical. The orchids are particularly popular. Great time to find that green residents always wanted to bring home to their small apartments among the stalls selling plenty of green and decorations.

March - International Rugby World Cup Sevens

Forms part of the World Sevens Series and probably the main event of the whole series. Hong Kong sevens offer a weekend of exiting, running and fast pace rugby. Rugby teams come from over 20 nations to compete, attracting fans from all over the world. For many regulars, its the beerfest of the year. Its always a long night in Wanchai and Lan Kwai Fong after the games each day.

March - Good Friday

March - Easter Monday

A very important festival especially among the Christian community. Many shops sell sweets related to this festival, as chocolates, egg cake, etc.

April - Ching Ming Festival

Falling on the 106th day after the Winter Solstice, Ching Ming is a family affair among the Hong Kong Festivals. It is the day when relatives flock to their ancestors' graves. They tidy the tombstones and arrange fresh flowers and three glasses of wine before them. They burn joss sticks and paper objects, in the belief that the dead will receive these "the other side".

This can be a fantastic sight as incense and joss sticks are burned and a variety of food is left – including, in unique Hong Kong style, takeaway rice and pork. Paper cars, money, mahjong sets, even cellular phones go up in smoke. The families also present roast piglets, fruit and other food to the deceased but that doesn't go to waste. The day usually ends with a family feast.

April/May - Tin Hau Festival

The Fisherman’s festival; Tin Hau is the protector of fisherman. Hundreds of boats, decked out in streamers and pennants, make their way to the Tin Hau temples around the territory, where they ask for luck in the coming year.

May - Cheung Chau Festival

Wacky and wonderful, the week long Cheung Chau Bun Festival reaches the climax with a parade of children on stilts and the infamous bun tower climbing competition. The bun competition is a mad race to the top of bun-clad towers. The higher the bun the greater the luck and the glory. Originally made of bamboos the local government has changed them to steel after one time when the structure collapsed. Moreover, now only bonafide climbers using ropes can ascend the tower. Definitely one of Hong Kong's unique events.

May 15 - Lord Buddha’s Birthday

A public holiday when Buddha statues are taken out of their monastery for their once yearly bath.

Tuen Ng or Dragon Boat Festival

Arguably the most exciting Hong Kong festival of the year. In an adrenalin filled version of the Oxford and Cambridge boat races; eight men dragon boats, ornately decorated, do battle over three days in what is fierce competition. Among the fastest growing team water sports Hong Kong Dragon Boat Races are traditionally held to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan the patriotic Chinese poet, and it's only sport to be celebrated as National Holiday.

Jul 1 - Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day

Aug 11 - Seven Sisters Festival-

Sept - Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival; Moon Festival-

Hong Kong's biggest festival other than Chinese New Year. This commemorates the Chinese revolution against the Mongolian Dynasty. Big and small lanterns appear all over town and there are dragon and lion dances. Everyone's favourite mooncakes make their annual appearance. Practically the Chinese families will be out in force carrying lanterns to see the moon. Visit the parks near you if not the Victoria Peak or the Victoria Park. Festival ends with a major clean up the next day.

Aug - Hungry Ghosts Festival

In order to appease the ancestors' souls and all the forgotten spirits, people make small models in paper of objects, and burn it all with incense on the pavements of the streets or at the entrance door of their houses. They worship the gods to protect those beloved ones and for that prepare dishes of meat and fruits.

Oct 1 - National Day.

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Oct - Chung Yeung Festival

Also known as the Festival of Ascending Heights, celebrated by the Chinese, when many people climb hills after offering prayers at family graves.

Nicknamed the hiking holiday, and based on an old folk tale of a man saved from death by being told to move to higher ground - it's a long story. Many Hong Kong locals still make the trip up into the hills to burn offerings - and due to a lack of care, often whole mountainsides

Dec 25 - Christmas Day.

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Dec 26 - Boxing Day.

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