Getting Festive

From acrobatic lion dances to buns on bamboo towers, Hong Kong’s unique culture is on full display at a festival – and there are plenty to see throughout the year. Get set for Hong Kong’s best celebrations and enjoy the selfie overload as ELLE KWAN takes us through the annual line-up of fun.

- Elle Kwan

LATE JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Learn those words – “Happy Chinese New Year” – and you’ll be welcoming in the biggest festival of the year. During this celebration you’ll see locals exchanging lai see, or lucky red envelopes, with children, employees and unmarried friends; and, if you want to guarantee good service in the year to come, it’s worth preparing some of these packets of good fortune for your helper and door staff too.

During the week long festival, visit a temple like Man Mo or Wong Tai Sing and soak up some spirituality, or head to Causeway Bay’s massive flower market during the day. By night, join crowds bustling for Cathay Pacific’s enormous Chinese New Year parade. Held on New Year’s Day, the event is a spectacle of colour, noise and movement as drummers, acrobats, floats, dancers and Chinese lions shimmy along the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, throngs gather to watch a dazzling fireworks display light up the skies across Victoria Harbour. An insider tip? The views from Tsim Sha Tsui also give views of Central’s jaw-dropping skyline. Stake your claim early on the boardwalks at the Avenue of Stars.

FEBRUARY

Spring Glow