CHINESE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS: NEED-TO-KNOW DATES

China has seven statutory public holidays, set by the State Council. Below are the official 2026 dates, plus our provisional 2027 dates.

You’ll also be able to check the Taiwan National Holidays for 2026 and 2027.

Further on down we talk about each of these Chinese holidays in more details, and how they are celebrated.

In 2026 the Spring Festival break ran nine days (February 15 to 23), and people worked Saturday February 14 and Saturday February 28 to make up for it.

Labour Day was a five-day public holiday (May 1 to 5), and Golden Week ran seven days from October 1 to 7.

CHINESE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS 2026

Make up days:

• * Chinese New Year – Sunday 14th February 2026 & Saturday 28th February 2026
• ** Labor Day – Sunday 26th April 2026
• ***Mid-Autumn Festival & National Day – Sunday 20th September 2026 & Saturday 10th October 2026

Others Holidays & Observed Dates in 2026

CHINESE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS 2027

Others Holidays & Observed Dates in 2027

Good to know:

• International Women’s Rights Day – observed for half a day by women only.
• Youth Day – observed for half a day by young people aged 14 to 28.
• Children’s Day – observed for a full day by children under 14.
• Army Day – observed for half a day by military personnel on active duty.

CHINESE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS || HOW DO THEY WORK?

Chinese national holidays do not work like in any other country.

So if you really want to understand when people in China have national days off you will have to spend a bit of time trying to understand the system.

This is important because many days that might look like holidays (and are often shown as such on many websites) are in fact not holidays. They are a Saturday or Sunday moved to a week day and in return a weekend will become a normal working day.

China has seven statutory public holidays every year: New Year’s Day, Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming), Labour Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day.

Since January 1, 2025, these holidays add up to 13 statutory days off a year, up from 11. Lunar New Year’s Eve and May 2 were the two new days.

Weekend swaps then stretch these days into the longer breaks in the table above. That’s why the Spring Festival break ran nine days in 2026.

In addition the Chinese government practices a very unique system that aims to create longer consecutive holidays by exchanging work and weekend days. These swapped weekend days are called make-up workdays or adjusted working days (调休 tiáoxiū).

As an example:

Here’s how it worked in 2019, under the older rules: 1st – 3rd of October (Tue-Thur) were national holidays

Sunday the 29th of Sep. and Saturday 12th of October are declared working days

In return Friday the 4th and Monday the 7th of October are given off

This creates a consecutive holiday of seven days from Tuesday the 1st of October until Monday the 7th of October.

• If a holiday falls on a weekend, the following Monday is given off instead.
• The exact swaps change every year. The General Office of the State Council (国务院 Guówùyuàn) publishes the whole of the next year’s schedule in a single notice, usually in early November. The 2026 notice came out on November 4, 2025.
• Until that notice appears, any dates you see for the following year, including our 2027 column, are provisional. Under the 2024 revision, people should also generally not work more than six days in a row around a holiday.
• New Year’s Day (January 1), Labour Day (May 1) and National Day (October 1) are fixed dates. Spring Festival, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn follow the lunar calendar, so they move around the Western calendar each year. Qingming follows a solar term (节气 jiéqì) and lands on April 4 or 5 in most years.

WHAT ABOUT HOLIDAYS IN TAIWAN?

Taiwan Holidays follow a slightly different pattern, but in general they are similar.

2026 TAIWAN NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

2027 TAIWAN NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

This is an estimate. All dates need to be officially confirmed.

HOW DOES CHINA CELEBRATE HOLIDAYS?

Here’s a quick rundown on how Chinese people celebrate the big days in the calendar. Four of them are known as China’s four great traditional festivals (四大传统节日 sì dà chuántǒng jiérì): Spring Festival, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.

We also look at the Lantern Festival and Christmas. Both are widely celebrated, but neither is a day off in mainland China.

New Year’s Day

In China, New Year’s Day (元旦 Yuándàn) is not typically celebrated as a cultural festival; it is generally treated as a day off work.

However, in big cities such as Beijing or Hong Kong, you can expect to enjoy a big firework display and other such celebrations.

Much like in Western culture, families, friends and colleagues will celebrate together to enjoy this national holiday.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is the big one, the biggest holiday of all in China.

Chinese New Year always falls between January 21 and February 20. Since 2025 the official break usually runs eight or nine days, starting on Lunar New Year’s Eve.

Falling on the 1st day in the 1st Lunar month, Chinese New Year is usually in January or February.

This is China’s largest festival celebrated throughout the country. It is the longest public holiday in China.

In 2026 Chinese New Year fell on February 17 and welcomed the Year of the Horse (马年 mǎnián). In 2027 it falls on February 6, the start of the Year of the Goat (羊年 yángnián).

Chinese people usually return to their hometowns, meaning large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are often left empty (or at least more empty than usual).

All that travel home creates chūnyùn (春运), the Spring Festival travel rush. It lasts about 40 days around the holiday, and train and plane tickets sell out fast, so book early if you’re travelling.

While the cities empty, factories often stay shut for longer than the official break, and many small family-run shops and restaurants close for one to two weeks. Big malls, supermarkets, chain restaurants and tourist sites mostly stay open.

It is typical at these times for people to eat dumplings and spend time with family and extended family.

The reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve is the high point. Children and unmarried relatives get red envelopes (红包 hóngbāo) of lucky money, and these days many are sent digitally on WeChat.

There are lots of fireworks set off during the lead up to this Chinese national holiday, climaxing on New Year’s Day.

In recent years in the middle of big cities, for example Beijing, the setting off of fireworks has been banned due to noise pollution and safety.

See below for some pictures of our students and their homestay families celebrating!

Lantern Festival

The Chinese Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day in the 1st Lunar month, usually in February.

Lanterns will be set off and many people go to watch them fly high in the sky. It is traditional for people to eat sticky rice dumplings called tangyuan (汤圆 tāngyuán).

Children go out at night carrying paper lanterns. It is also common that they then solve riddles on the lanterns.

The origin and significance of the festival are unclear as there are many different possible origins and beliefs.

However, the roots most likely date back over 2000 years ago at the time of Buddhism.

Buddhist monks would light lanterns in the temple of the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, and as a result Emperor Ming of Han, the emperor at the time, ordered all the households and temples at the time to do so. From there, it developed into a custom!

Qingming Festival

Qingming Jie (清明节 Qīngmíng jié) usually falls on April 4 or 5, because it follows a solar term rather than the lunar calendar. It normally becomes a three-day break with the weekend: April 4 to 6 in 2026. It is also known as Tomb-sweeping Day, giving an idea of what people get up to on that day.

It is a traditional day to go and visit your family’s ancestors’ tombs.

It is a time spent with family, and people may also go away and go travelling.

May Day

May Day, also called Labour Day (劳动节 Láodòng jié), isn’t celebrated with fireworks or a particular kind of food treat, it’s simply a day off work and a time to relax with friends, colleagues, or family.

It’s China’s Labor Day. People may go to the park to hang out together and have food and drinks, and play games.

It is also common for people to go to the park to have a BBQ or to dance and sing together.

Many Chinese people also choose this day to go shopping – so it’s probably not the best day to pick to buy your groceries!

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat festival in China falls on the 5th day in 5th lunar month.

The Dragon Boat Festival is known as 端午节 (Duānwǔ jié) in Chinese.

This will usually be in June.

Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate an ancient Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC).

On this day, it is traditional to eat Zongzi, a sticky sweet rice triangle snack.

This Chinese holiday is also celebrated by holding boat races in boats shaped like dragons, hence the name.

Teams of 30 or 60 people paddle wooden dragon shaped boats accompanied by the sound of beating drums.

This is particularly still popular in the South of China.

For some key vocab check out our image here about Dragon Boat Festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn festival falls on the 15th day in 8th lunar month, usually in September.

Chinese people spend this time with the family, heading back to their hometown if it’s not too far and holding family reunions.

This is the time of year when you will get sick of eating the popular Mid-Autumn Festival snack, the mooncake (月饼 yuèbing). If you’re curious, read more about mooncakes and the Moon Festival.

In fact, if you manage to get through the festival without eating any, it’s pretty impressive. They are usually sweet, with a soft pastry outside and a smooth filling. The filling is usually sweet.

However, be warned. There are some weird flavours of mooncakes around, and the amount is increasing every year. Don’t trust any of your Western friends who give you a mooncake.

Chances are they want to see your reaction whilst biting into a sweet pastry filled with spicy beef, or it’s a cake they received from a Chinese friend that they don’t like the flavour of.

DID YOU KNOW || Some Vietnamese National Holidays have a cross over with the Chinese Holidays? Find out more in our blog post about Vietnam’s Public Holidays here.

National Day

National Day falls on October 1 every year and marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The holiday is stretched into a seven-day break called Golden Week (October 1 to 7 in 2026), which is generally celebrated by mass travel. For more, read our Golden Week and National Day facts.

Chinese people head back to their hometowns in Chinese New Year fashion or also travel to different popular tourist attractions in China.

Expect mass travelling during this week. So much so, that it’s best to leave the country or keep yourself locked behind closed doors.

If you have time off and wish to travel too, head to smaller cities if you want to stay in China and stay away from major tourist attractions.

For many Chinese people, this is one of the few times a year they can travel and visit different places around the Middle Kingdom.

A trip to the Great Wall at this time will see you in a crowd of thousands of people – unable to see anything but the head in front of you. If you don’t believe us, have a quick Google. Just don’t do it.

Christmas Day in China

Mainland China doesn’t celebrate Christmas, so there are no Chinese national holidays around the Christmas period. Only Hong Kong and Macao have public holidays for Christmas.

Despite this, the Christmas vibe is big! You’ll find Christmas trees and decorations around all of the shops and shopping centres.

Funnily enough sometimes, the following year in perhaps May, you’ll still see Merry Christmas banners still hanging from certain buildings, in true China style!

Shopping becomes particularly popular around this period and retail stores go wild in a bid to get the custom of the Chinese public!

OTHER FESTIVALS IN CHINA // NOT PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

Plenty of other days are celebrated across China, but offices and schools stay open on them. Here are the ones you’ll hear about most, including the Lantern Festival covered above.

💡 Our teachers love these days for class. Expect to learn the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl around Qixi, and to be offered dumplings on Dongzhi in northern cities like Beijing.

Want to find out more about holidays across Asia?

Why not check out our guides to all the Japanese national holidays, Korean national holidays and Vietnamese national holidays as well.

CHINESE NATIONAL HOLIDAYS || FAQs

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