Practical guide
Hong Kong Festival Dates vs Public Holidays, 2026–2027
Keep the traditional festival date, Hong Kong general holiday and your own arrangement in separate fields. In 2027, Mid-Autumn falls on 15 September and the holiday is 16 September; the New Year holiday list names 6, 8 and 9 February. The checked 2026 cases explain a different Ching Ming/Easter collision.
Keep the festival, general holiday and your own plan separate
A traditional festival date answers when an occasion falls in the calendar. A gazetted general holiday answers which date appears in a jurisdiction’s official holiday list. Your dinner, work arrangement or ticketed activity has a third source. Do not change the traditional date to make it match a day off.
This comparison is specifically Hong Kong and the separately checked years 2026 and 2027. HKO supplies the calendar rows [1]; GovHK supplies the gazetted general holidays [2]. The two sources have different jobs. Neither table establishes your personal employment entitlement, a school’s opening schedule or a particular event booking.
These dates were rechecked against official sources on 7 November 2026. The 2026 rows are historical worked comparisons; the 2027 rows provide the next-year reference. Reopen the appropriate official calendar for another year.
Read the 2027 holiday names before copying a previous year
HKO’s 2027 table supplies the lunar-month and solar-term rows; GovHK’s 2027 list supplies the gazetted general-holiday names. [4, 5] Use the year beside every date. A match between two fields in one row does not make them interchangeable.
Scroll sideways inside the table to read every column.
| Occasion | Calendar date | GovHK holiday entry | Reading decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunar New Year | 6 February, Saturday; lunar month 1, day 1 | 6 February: Lunar New Year’s Day; 8 February: The third day of Lunar New Year; 9 February: The fourth day of Lunar New Year | Keep the supplied day numbers; do not rename the fourth-day holiday as the second day. |
| Ching Ming / Qingming | 5 April, Monday; Bright & Clear term | 5 April: Ching Ming Festival | The calendar and holiday dates agree in this 2027 row. |
| Tuen Ng / Dragon Boat | 9 June, Wednesday; lunar month 5, day 5 | 9 June: Tuen Ng Festival | The same date still supplies no personal work or event arrangement. |
| Mid-Autumn | 15 September, Wednesday; lunar month 8, day 15 | 16 September: The day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival | Preserve both dates and the following-day label. |
GovHK explains that the second day of Lunar New Year in 2027 falls on a Sunday, so the fourth day is designated as a general holiday in substitution. HKO’s February rows put lunar day 2 on Sunday, 7 February, day 3 on Monday, 8 February and day 4 on Tuesday, 9 February. [4, 5] This is the checked explanation for the 2027 Hong Kong list, rather than a formula for every jurisdiction or future year.
Read the exact date and the exact official holiday name
Scroll sideways inside the table to read every column.
| Occasion | Actual calendar date / basis | GovHK general-holiday entry | What to preserve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunar New Year | 17 February; HKO lunar month 1, day 1 | 17, 18 and 19 February: Lunar New Year’s Day and its second and third days | A three-day holiday list is not three different first days of the lunar month. |
| Ching Ming / Qingming | 5 April, Sunday; HKO Bright & Clear | 6 April: The day following Ching Ming Festival; 7 April: The day following Easter Monday | Keep the collision explanation; do not relabel 7 April as the festival day. |
| Tuen Ng / Dragon Boat | 19 June, Friday; HKO lunar month 5, day 5 | 19 June: Tuen Ng Festival | The two date fields agree here; that does not make agreement a universal rule. |
| Mid-Autumn | 25 September, Friday; HKO lunar month 8, day 15 | 26 September: The day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival | The holiday label explicitly names the following day. |
The HKO lunar-day number alone is insufficient: retain the most recent month-start label above the row. The 25 September “15” belongs to month 8, whereas 3 March “15” belongs to month 1. Use the full date-check guide for that reading task.
Why 6 and 7 April both need their actual labels
GovHK explains the 2026 collision explicitly. Ching Ming falls on a Sunday, making the following day a general holiday; that following day, 6 April, is also Easter Monday. The next day that is not itself a general holiday, 7 April, is therefore an additional general holiday. [2]
Read this as the explanation for this official 2026 list. Do not turn it into a home-made formula for all countries, every holiday or future years. In a comparison note, retain “5 April: Ching Ming date,” “6 April: supplied holiday entry,” and “7 April: supplied additional holiday entry” as separate rows.
An app that displays a holiday on 6 April need not have converted Qingming incorrectly. First open the event and read its name and calendar source. An entry labelled “The day following Ching Ming Festival” is answering a different question from “When is Qingming?”
Check which calendar is supplying the entry
1823’s official public-holiday iCal page states that its calendar follows the Hong Kong gazette rather than festival dates. Its reviewed page currently supplies 2025–2027 and describes subscription and synchronisation. [3] A calendar titled “Hong Kong Public Holidays” is therefore not a complete list of traditional festivals.
Open the entry’s source calendar and its full name before adding a correction. If you have two calendars enabled, similar-looking entries may describe the festival and the following-day holiday separately. This article has not inspected your device or tested an import; keep the actual source visible.
For a public-holiday subscription, follow the current 1823 instructions for your software. For a festival-only personal note, use a checked annual conversion rather than copying a public-holiday label.
Five original calendar-reading checks
These are constructed reading exercises, not reports from readers or tests of calendar applications.
Check 1: An entry says “The day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival,” 26 September 2026. Is the traditional festival date necessarily 26 September?
No. The checked festival date is 25 September 2026.
Retain the full holiday label and the HKO month-8 day-15 row; they identify different fields.
Check 2: The 2026 list includes 7 April. Should you call that Qingming’s traditional date?
No. Qingming’s HKO term date is 5 April.
GovHK explains 7 April as the additional general holiday after the Ching Ming and Easter Monday collision.
Check 3: A gazetted general-holiday entry matches the festival day. Does that establish your work schedule?
No. Confirm the arrangement that actually applies to you.
The calendar comparison does not determine personal statutory leave or employer and school arrangements.
Check 4: A public-holiday subscription omits a traditional festival. Must the feed be broken?
Not necessarily. Check its stated scope.
1823 says its feed follows gazetted public holidays, not a comprehensive festival calendar.
Check 5: GovHK lists the fourth-day holiday on 9 February 2027. Is 9 February the traditional New Year’s first day?
No. The checked first day is 6 February 2027.
HKO places lunar day 2 on Sunday, 7 February. GovHK explains the fourth-day substitution for the 2027 list. Keep the calendar’s first day and the full holiday label separate.
Finish with a source-labelled date register
Write the place and year first, then keep the traditional rule, converted day, full gazetted label, official source and check date. Add your actual event or personal arrangement only after its responsible source confirms it. Unknown arrangements can remain unknown.
If the question is a parade time or viewing area, continue to the event-listing guide. A date table cannot supply those details. The downloadable register is an original blank aid for your own notes; it is not a monitored calendar.
Download the blank Hong Kong date register (TXT).
If you are saving the traditional date in your own calendar, use separately checked annual festival events rather than an inherited Gregorian yearly repeat.
Sources and further reading
- HKO: 2026 daily Gregorian–Lunar tableChecked month-start context and four festival/term rows; calendar date only.
- GovHK: General holidays for 2026Exact gazetted names and official 2026 collision explanation; no personal employment entitlement.
- 1823: Hong Kong Public Holidays iCalComplete current public page, last reviewed 13 October 2026; exact feed scope and stated 2025–2027 coverage. No device import or subscription tested.
- HKO: 2027 daily Gregorian–Lunar tableActual first-month days 1–4, fifth-month day 5, eighth-month day 15 and Bright & Clear rows, with their month resets and weekdays.
- GovHK: General holidays for 2027Complete official list and New Year second-day Sunday/fourth-day substitution statement; revision May 2026. No personal employment entitlement or event booking.