Chinese festivals month by month
February - the Big One- Chinese New Year
Three days of celebrations mark Chinese New Year, culminating with a fantastic firework display in Victoria Harbor and a traditional parade. The whole city is shut for three days as families embark for China, or for restaurants.
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
April- Ching Ming Festival
Celebrating the beginning of spring, Ching Ming is when families visit their ancestral graves to clean and leave offerings. 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.
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 Cheung Chau Bun Festival climaxes with the infamous bun tower climbing competition.
May - Buddha's Birthday
Despite being a public holiday Lord Buddah’s birthday is one of the less exciting festivals. Buddha statues are taken out of their monastery for their once yearly bath.
June - Dragon Boat Festival
Arguably the most exciting 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.
August - Hungry Ghost Festival
Hong Kong's somewhat scarier version of Halloween; during the seventh moon it's believed that restless spirits and ghosts return to earth --- some of them with vengeance on their mind.To make the afterlife more comfortable, and appease any restless spirits, family members burn fake money, known as Hell Bank Notes, as well as paper creations of everything from cars to the Apple I-phone.
September - Mid-Autumn Festival
The biggest festival aside from Chinese New Year commemorates the Chinese giving the boot to their Mongolian overlords. Lanterns play a big part in the festival, as do dragon dances. Mooncakes also make an appearance, which consist of a pastry holding two salted duck eggs –an acquired taste.
October - Cheung Yeung Festival
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
