Guides · Fri 06 Nov 2026
Chinese New Year 2027 in Hong Kong: the night parade, the fireworks and the four day festival, planned properly
Chinese New Year falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, the Year of the Goat, and Hong Kong builds its biggest festival around it: flower fairs from 31 January, the Cathay International Chinese New Year Night Parade through Tsim Sha Tsui on the first night, fireworks over Victoria Harbour on the second, race day at Sha Tin on the third, and wishing trees, temple crowds and park celebrations running well past the holiday. The dates that are fixed, the ones still to be confirmed, and what to book first.
Hong Kong does many festivals well, but Chinese New Year is the one the city is built around. It is not a single event. It is a fortnight with a shape: a week of flower fairs and shopping, one huge night parade, one huge fireworks display, a race day, and then a long tail of temple visits, wishing trees and family outings that runs until the Lantern Festival closes the season on the fifteenth day. For 2027 the dates are already fixed, and they fall kindly. Here is the festival in order, with what is confirmed, what is still to come, and what to book while there is still a choice of rooms.
The dates: a Saturday start and four days off
Lunar New Year's Day falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, the first day of the Year of the Goat. The Government's gazetted general holidays are Saturday 6, Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 February: because the second day falls on Sunday 7 February, the fourth day, Tuesday 9 February, is designated a holiday in substitution. In practice the city gets a four day stretch, Saturday to Tuesday, and New Year's Eve, Friday 5 February, is the reunion dinner night when the festival really begins. Our Hong Kong public holidays 2027 calendar has the full year; this guide is about the festival itself.
The run-up: flower fairs, 31 January to 6 February
The festival starts in the flower fairs. The biggest is the Victoria Park Lunar New Year Fair, which runs from Sunday 31 January to Saturday 6 February in Causeway Bay, with sister fairs in parks across the city run by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. Families walk the fair lanes in the evenings buying peach blossom, orchids, kumquat trees and narcissus, each plant carrying a wish for the year. The crowds build all week and peak on New Year's Eve, when half the city seems to be carrying a blossom branch home. Go on a weekday evening if you can; go on the last night if you want the festival at full volume. Entry is free, the flowers are the purchase, and the MTR to Tin Hau or Causeway Bay is the way in and out.
Day one, Saturday 6 February: the night parade
The headline event is the Cathay International Chinese New Year Night Parade, listed on our event page for the evening of the first day, Saturday 6 February, in Tsim Sha Tsui. The parade is the Tourism Board's flagship: illuminated floats and performing troupes from Hong Kong, the mainland and overseas, working a street party route through the busiest shopping district in Kowloon.
The 2027 running order is confirmed closer to the date, but the parade's shape is settled and last year's edition shows it clearly. The procession sets off at 8pm from the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza, then runs along Canton Road, Haiphong Road and Nathan Road, finishing outside the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel and Towers on Salisbury Road, with street performances warming the route from around 6pm. In 2026 nearly 60 floats and performance groups took part. Watching from the pavement along the route is free; the seated spectator stands at the Cultural Centre are ticketed, sold first come, first served from the Tourism Board's Kowloon Visitor Centre at the Star Ferry Pier in the days before the parade, at HK$450 to HK$600 in 2026. If you want a seat, that sale is the date to watch. If you are happy standing, pick your stretch of Canton Road or Nathan Road early, because the barriers fill fast.
Staying in Tsim Sha Tsui puts the parade, the harbour and the MTR interchange in one walkable pocket, and rooms there go first for this weekend.
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Day two, Sunday 7 February: fireworks over the harbour
On the second night the city turns to the water. The Chinese New Year Fireworks Display is listed for Sunday 7 February over Victoria Harbour, in the display's traditional 8pm slot. It is one of the biggest nights of the Hong Kong year: in 2026 the display ran 23 minutes in eight scenes with more than 31,000 shells, and crowds lined both shores. The free viewing is excellent and needs no planning beyond arriving early: the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade and the Avenue of Stars on the Kowloon side, the Central and Wan Chai harbourfront and the Golden Bauhinia Square side on the island. Roads around both waterfronts close well before 8pm, so arrive by MTR and on foot.
The one bookable way to watch is from the water itself. The yacht night cruise wired to our fireworks listing boards at Central at 7.20pm and Tsim Sha Tsui at 7.35pm and puts you on the harbour for the display, which is a viewing cruise, not a ticket to an event that is free from the shore.
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Day two is also temple day. Che Kung Temple in Sha Tin draws some of its biggest crowds of the year across the second and third days, as worshippers come to turn the fan-bladed wheel of fortune, and Wong Tai Sin Temple stays busy from the New Year's Eve first incense onwards. Both are working temples first and sights second; go in the morning, dress modestly, and let the worshippers set the pace.
Day three, Monday 8 February: race day at Sha Tin
The third day belongs to the races. The Chinese New Year Race Day at Sha Tin Racecourse is on the Jockey Club's published calendar for Monday 8 February, and it is one of the best attended race meetings in the world: a holiday crowd, lion dances and festive ceremony around a full card of racing. It is the most Hong Kong way possible to spend the third day, and the East Rail line to Racecourse station makes it an easy trip from anywhere in Kowloon or the New Territories. General admission is the simple route in; the Jockey Club's page carries the day's arrangements.
The long tail: wishing trees, parks and the Cup
The holiday ends on Tuesday 9 February, but the festival does not. The Hong Kong Well Wishing Festival at Lam Tsuen in Tai Po opens on New Year's Day itself and runs through the season: write a wish on a placard, tie it to a mandarin orange and throw it into the branches of the famous wishing trees, then walk the village lanes and the Fong Ma Po fair. It is an easy half day from the city and the most charming thing in the whole programme.
The two big parks run their own celebrations across the holiday and beyond. Hong Kong Disneyland's Chinese New Year celebration is listed from 19 January to 18 February, inside the park and included with standard admission, and Ocean Park's Lunar Fiesta runs from 6 February into March. One button per park, on their own event pages and here:
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Football gets its night too: the Lunar New Year Cup is listed at Hong Kong Stadium on Wednesday 10 February. And the season closes the way it should, with lanterns: the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the new year, falls on Saturday 20 February 2027.
Book these first
The order that matters: a room in Tsim Sha Tsui or on the harbourfront first, because the four day weekend fills the best located hotels earliest. Then the park days, Disneyland or Ocean Park, dated and reserved. Then the parade stands if you want a seat, when the Tourism Board opens that sale. The parade route, the fireworks, the fairs and the temples are free and need nothing but an early arrival. Set a Hong Kong Happenings alert on the parade and fireworks pages and we will email you when the Tourism Board publishes the 2027 line-up and the stand sale date.
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