How we check our dates

Hong Kong Happenings is a calendar of dated events across Hong Kong, published by Maison V Group LLC. This page explains, in plain terms, how a date gets onto the calendar, what our labels mean, and what happens when a date turns out to be wrong. It is the standard every listing is held to, including the ones in our festival listings.

The rule: a date needs a source

Nothing lists without a source. Every event in the calendar was checked against the organiser, the venue, a sanctioning body or an official body such as the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department or a GovHK publication. Each record carries the page where its date appears and the day it was checked. If no page at that standard states the date, the event does not get a record until one does. Events we know happen but cannot yet source to that standard are left out, and we would rather leave a gap than fill it with a date copied from another calendar.

At the time of writing the calendar lists 300 events, of which 268 carry dates published by an organiser or an official body. The rest carry the other label, explained next.

Two labels: confirmed and tentative

Every date carries one of two standings. A confirmed date is one the organiser or an official body has published for that edition. A tentative date is an annual fixture whose next edition has not been announced yet, where the date in the calendar follows the established pattern: the same rule each year, such as the first day of Lunar New Year, or the same placing in the season. Tentative dates say so, in plain words, on the event page and in any article that uses them.

Two current examples show the line. The Hong Kong Sevens 2027 is confirmed, because the official Sevens site publishes 9 to 11 April 2027 for the Kai Tak edition. The Cheung Chau Bun Festival 2027 is tentative, because the festival's window follows the lunar pattern around the Buddha's Birthday holiday and no official listing for the 2027 edition had been published when we checked, even though the festival happens every year. The label follows the evidence, not the fame of the event.

When sources disagree

Sometimes two respectable listings give different dates. Then we go back to the organiser's own page, and if that does not settle it, to the venue or the sanctioning body. If the disagreement survives that, the record takes the more cautious standing and says why. Dates also move after we check them: typhoons postpone outdoor events, fairs shift by a day, tours add dates. We re-check the calendar on a rolling basis, and the check date printed on each event page is the honest statement of when that record was last verified.

If we get one wrong

Tell us. The contact form reaches the team that runs the calendar, and corrections with a source are made first. A calendar is only useful if its dates can be trusted, and the quickest way to keep that trust is to fix a wrong date the day it is spotted.

More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.