The great festivals of Asia and what they change for your business

Each great festival in Asia is a time for family, gifts and good wishes. It also changes the rhythm of business: factories stop, orders must be placed earlier, gifts are exchanged between partners. Here are the five festivals to know, and what they mean for you.

📅 Next major festival: Loy Krathong, on Tuesday 24 November 2026 — in 20 days. See the full calendar.

For information only. The dates follow the lunar calendar: they change every year. The 2027 dates are in our guide Closures in 2027.

🇨🇳 Chinese New Year (Spring Festival)

What it is: the biggest festival of the year in China, at the end of January or in February. Families get together, clean the house to chase away bad luck, stick red good-luck verses around the doors, and wish each other 新年快乐 ("xīnnián kuàilè", happy new year). Elders give red envelopes with money (红包, "hóngbāo"). In 2024, UNESCO inscribed the Spring Festival on the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

For your business: millions of people go home to their families; factories often stop for longer than the official holiday. Place your orders several weeks before, and do not plan anything urgent just after.

🇻🇳 Tết (Tết Nguyên Đán)

What it is: the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, at the same time as Chinese New Year. It is the most important festival in the country. People prepare bánh chưng (a cake of sticky rice, mung beans and pork, wrapped in leaves and cooked for hours), decorate the house with peach blossom in the north and apricot blossom in the south, and give red envelopes, lì xì. The first visitor of the year is supposed to bring luck to the house.

For your business: several weeks of slowdown. A short message of good wishes, "Chúc mừng năm mới" (happy new year), is always appreciated by a Vietnamese partner.

🇹🇭 Songkran, the Thai New Year

What it is: mid-April, after the rice harvest. People visit their families, show respect to elders and to Buddha statues, and pour water: it purifies and brings good luck. Today it is also a huge water festival in the street. UNESCO inscribed it on the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2023.

For your business: government offices and many companies are closed for several days. Avoid meetings and deliveries during that week.

🇹🇭 Loy Krathong, the festival of lights on the water

What it is: on the evening of the full moon of the twelfth month of the Thai lunar calendar, usually in November. People place a krathong on the water, a small raft of banana leaves with a candle and flowers, while making a wish and thanking the river. In Chiang Mai, the Yi Peng festival adds paper lanterns.

For your business: an evening of celebration rather than a holiday; it is a good time for a friendly message to a Thai partner.

🇨🇳 🇻🇳 The Mid-Autumn Festival

What it is: the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, in September or early October, when the moon is at its roundest. In China, it is a family festival around mooncakes; in Vietnam (Tết Trung Thu), it is above all a festival for children, with lanterns and unicorn dances.

For your business: giving a box of mooncakes to a partner or to employees is a common custom. It is also a period when sales of gift products increase: plan ahead if you sell food or gift boxes.

🇫🇷 And on the other side: French holidays

Your partners in Asia also need to know our calendar: August (many companies close or slow down) and the end-of-year holidays. For them too, a "Joyeux Noël et bonne année" in French is a pleasure to receive.

Three reflexes for your business

1. Note these festivals in your diary: order before, not during.
2. Send good wishes in your partner's language, even a single sentence.
3. Ask your partner which days it really closes: not all companies follow the official holiday.

To go further

📅 See also: the calendar of Asian festivals for the next 12 months (updated automatically).

Sources (consulted on 31 October 2026): UNESCO, list of the intangible cultural heritage — Songkran in Thailand (2023) and Spring Festival (2024); Tourism Authority of Thailand, Loi Krathong. For information only: this information does not engage the responsibility of Passerelle France-Asie.