Official Hong Kong Holidays for 2017 and 2018

Official Public Hong Kong holidays are set by the Government and usually include 17 days’ statutory holidays for workers. In general, if a statutory holiday falls on the employee's rest day, the employer is committed to giving a day off-in-lieu on a following day which is not the employee's rest day.

For 2017, the public holiday calendar looks like this:

For 2018, the following dates are set.

As the third day of Lunar New Year in 2018 falls on a Sunday, the fourth day of Lunar New Year is designated as a general holiday in substitution. In addition, since the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day in 2018 falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it is designated as a general holiday in substitution.

In general, Hong Kong schools follow a late August/early September to June/early July calendar and are required to provide 190 days of schooling. Within this, schools are permitted to timetable 90 days of holiday, and a further 6 days (split between staff development and other days) when children are not required to attend.

A typical school calendar will, therefore, incorporate the public holidays and will be constructed to allow a one week mid-term break in Term 1 and a 3 week break at Christmas, a ten day mid-term break in Term 2 (to include Lunar New Year’s Eve) and a 2 week + 1 day break at Easter, prior to the year end in June/early July. Schools generally resume the new academic year towards the 3rd or 4th week of August.

Parents will need to confirm with their child/ren's school in order to be sure of their holiday dates. These are generally available on-line, once the gazetted Official Calendar has been published by the Government.