CNY 2027 in Hội An: When Chinese New Year and Tết Are the Same Weekend

Singapore's Chinese New Year long weekend in 2027 runs Saturday 6 to Monday 8 February. Vietnam's Tết Nguyên Đán begins on Saturday 6 February. Those are not two holidays that happen to be near each other — they are the same lunar new year, so the three days Singapore takes off are exactly mùng 1, mùng 2 and mùng 3, the most concentrated days of the Vietnamese year. If you are considering flying over, that alignment is either the best reason to come or the reason not to, depending entirely on what you expect to find open.

TL;DR — CNY 2027 is Saturday 6 – Monday 8 February in Singapore and mùng 1–3 of Tết in Vietnam; the same three days. Hội An will be in full ceremonial dress: kumquat trees on every doorstep, red couplets on the old houses, pagodas filling from before dawn. But many family-run kitchens, most tailors and parts of the markets close for roughly those three days, and from about mùng 3 Vietnamese domestic tourism arrives in force. Hotels, tourist-facing restaurants and transport run normally throughout. Come for the ceremony, plan your meals in advance, and if you can add days, add them at the end — the fortnight after Tết is the best part and almost nobody plans for it.

Why the two holidays land on the same day

Tết Nguyên Đán and Chinese New Year both follow the same lunar calendar, so in most years they fall on the same date. The Vietnamese new year is not a variant of the Chinese one — it has its own foods, its own household rites and its own zodiac differences — but the arithmetic behind the date is shared.

In 2027 lunar 1/1 is Saturday 6 February, opening the Year of the Goat (Đinh Mùi in Vietnam). Singapore observes 6 and 7 February with Monday 8 February taken in lieu, which lines the long weekend up precisely with the days Vietnamese families spend at home.

One small oddity worth knowing, because it moves the eve: the twelfth lunar month of the outgoing year is a short one in 2027, only 29 days. There is no 30 tháng Chạp at all, so giao thừa — new year's eve — falls on Friday 5 February, the night most Singaporeans would be in the air.

What will actually be open

This is the practical heart of it, and the part that decides whether the weekend works.

Open throughout: hotels, hotel restaurants and spas, tourist-facing restaurants along the riverfront, taxis and Grab (with the normal published holiday surcharge), the Old Town itself and its ticket gates, pagodas and temples — busier than any other week of the year.

Closed for roughly mùng 1–3: a large share of the small family-run kitchens, most street-food carts, nearly all tailors, parts of the central market, and every bank and government office. Many reopen between mùng 3 and mùng 5, often with a firecracker and a small ceremony at the door.

The practical translation for a three-day trip: plan your meals rather than wandering and hoping. On a normal weekend, walking until something looks good is the right way to eat in Hội An. On mùng 1 and 2 it is how you end up eating at your hotel by default. Our Tết in Hội An guide has the full breakdown of what closes and when it comes back.

What you get in exchange

The Old Town is dressed, and not for you. Kumquat trees and yellow mai blossom appear on every doorstep and shopfront, red couplets go up on the timber houses, and the lanterns that are usually a backdrop for photographs are doing their actual job. It is the one week of the year when the decoration is not for visitors.

The pagodas are the real thing. On the eve and on mùng 1, people go to temple — Chùa Ông on Trần Phú, Chúc Thánh and Phước Lâm out past the edge of town — to burn incense and ask for a good year. Go early, stand at the back, and do not photograph anyone mid-prayer without asking. It is the least performed thing you will see here.

A quieter Old Town, for the first two days at least. International arrivals dip right around mùng 1, so the first evenings can be calmer than an ordinary February night. From about mùng 3 that reverses as Vietnamese families arrive on their annual trip — three generations in matching áo dài photographing each other on the Japanese Bridge. If you have ever wanted to see Hội An full of Vietnamese people rather than tourists, this is the fortnight.

The river villages. Cẩm Nam, Cẩm Kim and Cẩm Thanh are where Tết is still a village festival rather than a town event. Cycling past open front rooms with the altar laid, children in new clothes and a great deal of waving is, for most of our guests, the memory that survives the trip. Nothing is staged, because that week nobody is selling anything.

For a Singaporean specifically

Two things are worth saying plainly, because they cut both ways.

You already have a Lunar New Year. If your own CNY involves reunion dinner, visiting relatives and open houses, then flying out on the 6th means missing your own — and that is a family question, not a travel one. Plenty of Singaporeans go away precisely to skip the visiting circuit; plenty would never consider it. We are not going to pretend to know which you are.

Much of it will feel familiar, and then stop being familiar. Red envelopes, the sweeping taboo, citrus for luck, the emphasis on the reunion meal — you will recognise all of it. Then the differences start: the flower is yellow mai blossom rather than peach or pussy willow, the cake is bánh tét, a cylinder of glutinous rice and pork boiled in banana leaf and sliced into discs, and the first-footing custom (xông đất) is taken seriously enough that you should not drop in on a household on the morning of mùng 1 unless specifically invited. Being able to read the shape of the festival while still finding it foreign is, honestly, the best argument for coming.

Practical notes for those three days

Book everything early. This is peak domestic demand in Vietnam as well as a Singapore long weekend. Rooms and the SIN–DAD flights both tighten well in advance, and minimum stays appear.

Carry more cash than usual. Banks are shut, ATMs are heavily used and occasionally empty in the first days, and the parts of Tết you will want to spend money on — market stalls, a boat, a lantern — are cash.

Bring something red or yellow. Not a rule, but you will notice you are the only person in black, and black and stark white read as funeral colours.

Two phrases. Chúc mừng năm mới covers everything. An khang thịnh vượng — peace and prosperity — is the one that gets a genuine smile from an older person.

Planning a trip around this? See dates at our quiet riverside hotel on the Thu Bồn. Check availability →

Do not expect a tailor. If a suit or a dress was part of the plan, that is a different trip. Hội An's workshops close longer than anything else, often the better part of a week.

If you can take extra days, take them afterwards

This is the most useful thing on this page. The fortnight after Tết is denser with real events than the holiday itself, and almost no visitor plans for it.

Thursday 11 February — the carpentry village of Kim Bồng, directly across the river from us, holds the ancestor rite for the guild that physically built Hội An's Old Town. Friday 12 February — the 500-year-old herb village of Trà Quế holds its Cầu Bông flower-offering and harvest blessing. And Friday 19 February is Nguyên Tiêu, the first full moon of the lunar year and the largest lantern night Hội An runs all year — bigger than the monthly ones, and better than Mid-Autumn for atmosphere.

A Singaporean who can stretch to the following weekend gets the ceremony, the village festivals and the best lantern night of 2027 in one trip. If you have to choose between the CNY weekend and the one after it, the one after it is the better holiday.

Where to stay over Tết

During Tết the side of the river you are on stops being a question about noise and becomes a question about what you actually get to see. Deep in the Old Town you are inside the decorated part. On the far bank you are inside a residential neighbourhood where the festival is being lived — altars laid in open front rooms, mai trees arriving home on motorbikes, children let loose in new clothes.

Nghê Prana is a riverside hotel on the Cẩm Nam side of the Thu Bồn, five minutes from the lanterns and in the middle of that. If you are considering the CNY weekend, ask us before you book: we will tell you honestly which of our services are running on which of the holiday days rather than letting you discover it on mùng 1. See our rooms, and the long-weekend guide for how this weekend compares with the other four in 2027.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Chinese New Year 2027 in Singapore and Vietnam? Both fall on Saturday 6 February 2027, because Tết Nguyên Đán and Chinese New Year follow the same lunar calendar. Singapore observes 6 and 7 February with Monday 8 February in lieu, giving a three-day long weekend. In Vietnam those days are mùng 1 to mùng 3 of Tết. New year's eve is Friday 5 February.

Is Hội An closed during Tết and Chinese New Year? No. Hotels, hotel spas, tourist-facing restaurants, taxis and the Old Town run normally throughout. What closes for roughly mùng 1–3 is the family-run layer: small local kitchens, street-food carts, most tailors, parts of the markets, and all banks and government offices. Most reopen between mùng 3 and mùng 5.

Is the CNY long weekend a good time to visit Hội An? It is the most atmospheric weekend of the year and the least forgiving of improvisation. You get the town in full ceremonial dress, packed pagodas and calmer international crowds for the first days, in exchange for a reduced choice of restaurants. Plan your meals ahead and it is excellent; wander and hope and it is frustrating.

What is different between Vietnamese Tết and Singaporean Chinese New Year? The date and much of the symbolism are shared — red envelopes, citrus, the reunion meal, the no-sweeping custom. The differences are the yellow mai blossom instead of peach or pussy willow, bánh tét rather than nian gao as the signature food, and xông đất, the first-footing custom, which means not visiting a household on the morning of mùng 1 unless invited.

Should I extend past the CNY weekend in 2027? If you can, yes — the fortnight after Tết is better than Tết itself. The Kim Bồng carpentry rite is on 11 February, the Trà Quế harvest blessing on 12 February, and Nguyên Tiêu, the year's biggest lantern night, on 19 February.

Do I need a visa, and will flights be full? No visa — Singapore passports enter Vietnam visa-free for 30 days. Flights and rooms do tighten well in advance, since this is peak domestic demand in Vietnam as well as a Singapore long weekend, so book early.

Dates are converted from the Vietnamese lunar calendar with mùng 1 tháng Giêng anchored to Saturday 6 February 2027 — the same anchor used across our Tết, Kim Bồng, Trà Quế and 2027 lantern-calendar guides. The twelfth lunar month of the outgoing year is confirmed as a 29-day short month, placing giao thừa on 5 February. Singapore's 2027 public holidays are as confirmed by the Ministry of Manpower. Vietnam's official extended holiday block for Tết 2027 was still at draft stage when this was written. Closure patterns are reported from Hội An, from the Cẩm Nam riverside across the Thu Bồn from the Ancient Town.