As one of Asia’s most-festive cities, Hong Kong boasts a vibrant range of celebrations each and every month, but none is as impressive as Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is one of Hong Kong’s most celebrated festivals and it should be on your bucket list for next year.
Hong Kong’s Chinese New Year festivities are a symphony of tradition and innovation, from riveting temple hopping to timeless wishing rituals, the city is bursting with festive surprises. And while generations-old customs are still marked during this important time of the year, this vibrant and sophisticated city has also modernized its celebrations with novel interpretations of historic rituals and creative activities.
Get ready to embrace a year filled with blessings and good luck, and make sure to include Chinese New Year in Hong Kong on your bucket list of celebrations you need to experience. Here is how Hong Kong rings in the new year in style.
Chinese New Year Night Parade
Hong Kong Tourism BoardWatch the Chinese New Year Night Parade
Experience an international parade like no other on the first day of the year — when the Chinese New Year Night Parade transforms the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon into a mesmerising carnival. You will have no shortage of eye-candy to enjoy with dazzling floats and jaw-dropping performances from an incredible lineup of international and local performing groups.
There is no more iconic way to kick off the new year, and the annual parade and celebration traditionally features a number of surprises that will wow attendees. The energetic celebrations continue through to the second day of the new year, when the 2025 Lunar New Year Fireworks Display lights up nearby Victoria Harbour.
A glowing wishing tree
Hong Kong Tourism BoardExperience the Hong Kong Well-Wishing Festival
An area in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, Lam Tsuen is home to the wishing trees, a revered spot that people visit to cast their wishes.
Every Chinese New Year, fortune seekers of all ages gather at the Hong Kong Well-Wishing Festival, ready to write their wishes on a piece of paper — called a placard — and then, after attaching it to an orange, tossing it up into the trees. If your paper gets captured in branches, it is believed your wish will come true, and the higher you can toss your wish and get it caught, the better the chance your wish will be realized.
Even this age-old tradition has entered the 21st century. Moving with the times, the wishing trees have been enhanced with luminescent lighting and glowing wishing placards, adding a magical touch to this celebration that dates to the 1100s and the Southern Song dynasty.
You can also try one of the upgraded new rituals, such as blessing lotus lanterns and love locks, alongside a series of other exclusive activities. There is even a night market that takes place during the festival, and the floats from the city’s International Chinese New Year Night Parade are on display here as well.
This year, the Hong Kong Well-Wishing Festival runs from Jan. 29 through Feb. 12, with the night market taking place from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4. You can learn more, including the best way to get there using public transport, at .
Prayer request inside the Taisui Yuenchen Hall
Hong Kong Tourism BoardSeek good fortune at a local temple
Fortune-seeking meets interactive technology at the Wong Tai Sin Temple, which is a well-known shrine and tourist attraction that has a reputation for making most Chinese New Year wishes come true.
Worshippers flock to the temple on the night of Chinese New Year’s Eve to offer the sacred first incense to its deity — Wong Tai Sin, or the Great Immortal Wong — at midnight. Doing so is considered a good omen and a propitious beginning to the new year.
Auspiciousness extends past New Year’s Eve to the entire first month of the lunar year, with people paying their respects to the Taisui — the 60 deities in charge of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs that are combined with the five elements of Chinese astrology. They are located in the temple’s Taisui Yuanchen Hall, which is one of the most popular spots in Hong Kong at this time of year.
Inside the hall, look up at its domed roof that features a starry LED sky filled with astronomical constellations that create an otherworldly atmosphere. Standing beneath the dome and praying or reciting your wish for the year, you will hear your voice echoing throughout the hall.
Be sure to also place your written-out wish into the cabinet in front of the Taisui shrine. Once you do, you will be greeted by a misty special effect with glowing red light, symbolising the deities’ acceptance of your intentions for the year ahead.
Don’t leave the temple without also visiting its Cultural Centre for Wong Tai Sin Belief and Customs, where you can enter your name and wish for the year ahead using a special QR code to see it displayed on an impressive LED wishing wall.
Two other popular temples in Hong Kong are the Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan — where visitors often pray for academic and career success — and the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei, where people wish for good blessings for the year ahead.
Both temples feature self-service kiosks that allow temple visitors to effortlessly purchase incense and make an offering. And, to commemorate the experience, a blessing seal will be stamped on your receipt, so you will get a unique keepsake that also allows you to carry your good fortune for the year around with you.
For detailed information on when the temples are open to the public, please visit and .
To learn more about Chinese New Year activities in Hong Kong, and festivals and events throughout the year, visit .
