Macao public holidays in the Year of the Rabbit 2023

Holidays dot our calendars and help us mark the progress of time. The list of public holidays in Macao below will help you plan your trips in advance and maximize your vacations in 2023.

Located on the southeast coast of Chinese mainland, Macao has been a point of intersection between Chinese and Western culture for four hundred years, particularly Portuguese culture. You can see the fusion of cultural essences in the details, patterns, and imagery used in Macao’s architecture, nearly everywhere you look.

Of particular interest is the Historic Center of Macao, where the old buildings still thrive, teeming with life and brimming with the mysteries of Macau’s multicultural heritage. The area covered by Macau is quite small, only 29.9 square kilometers, but its food, ancient architecture, shopping and rich nightlife attract countless tourists.

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Macao observes New Year’s Day with a public holiday every January 1, as does most of the rest of the world. Macao, along with Hong Kong, is one of China’s two special administrative regions and is more apt to celebrate Western holidays like New Year’s Day with gusto than the rest of the country.

On this day, it is an ideal time to ferry over to Macao, to see the Macau Tower and the popular Cotai District, to stay at the luxurious Venetian Hotel, or to see the city via hop-on hop-off bus tours.

Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is the most spectacular public holiday in Hong Kong. The holiday celebrates the start of the New Year according to the Chinese calendar, and falls in January or February according to the Gregorian calendar.

The melting-pot culture found in Macao offers diverse people and a calendar full of exciting festivals and events.

There are dragon and lion dances, parades, festive markets, fireworks, cultural performances, and endless family-oriented activities during the Lunar New Year celebration in Macao. At this time of the year, it’s noted as a great time for people from other countries to travel.

Tomb-Sweeping Day, also known as Qingming Festival, falls on the first day of the fifth solar terms (April 5) in Chinese traditional calendar. It’s both a natural solar term and a traditional festival when people usually have outings in spring, sweep graves, bring offerings and pray to their relatives and ancestors who have passed away.

People usually prepare foods favored by the deceased or other items thought to be useful in the afterlife. In some places, people prepare elaborate paper-based gifts that include representations of various mundane items such as new glasses, clothing, or even a type of paper currency thought to be useful to the departed.

Easter is the remembrance of the death on Friday, and resurrection on Sunday, of Jesus Christ, the champion of the Christian faith. The holiday runs from Good Friday to Easter Monday and gives many people a four-day weekend.

Since Macao is a festive place all of the time, expect a celebratory atmosphere. Hotels will put on elaborate buffets, offering traditional and non-traditional foods, as well as magicians, clowns and balloons. Design students in Macau help children to make bunny masks for the celebrations.

Easter is celebrated in Macao. Good Friday and The Day Before Easter are all on the Macao public holiday calendar. It celebrates the remembrance of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Macao, some hotels offer jelly beans for visitors. There are egg hunts, egg-rolling contests, and plenty of chocolate bunnies. Even airports get in on the celebrations, putting up huge Easter Bunny backdrops for photos and decorating the escalators with colorful eggs.

International Worker’s Day, also called Labor Day holiday, is an international holiday that is generally celebrated on May 1 each year in over 80 countries in the world. Interestingly, the Labor Day originated in the United States in the late 1880s.

Labor Day on May 1 is an off-work day for those in Macao and Chinese China, and it’s a huge tourist day in Macao. As many as 500,000 or more visitors flood into Macao every Labor Day, especially for the years when the holiday creates a long weekend.

The birthday of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later known as Gautama Buddha and the founder of Buddhism, is a public holiday in Macao as well as other countries with a large number of practicing Buddhists.

The holiday is widely celebrated in Macao. Statues of the baby Buddha are bathed with tea or water, lanterns are hung and there are extended temple services. Some citizens free caged birds or make offerings at temples.

Tuen Ng Festival (Cantonese name of the festival), also known as the Duanwu or Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional Chinese holiday whose origins date back to the Warring States era (475 - 221 BC). Regarded as one of China's major traditional festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival has been celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar for millennia. In the Year of the Rabbit, the celebration falls on June 22.

The Mid-Autumn Festival in Macao takes place in the eighth lunar month, on the 15th day on the Chinese calendar. This means it typically falls around mid or late September. This is a date that parallels with the solar calendar’s Autumn Equinox.

If you are in Macao during the Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes are sold and consumed everywhere. Another part of the celebration is when lanterns are released on beaches and in public parks, which is why the festival is also often called the Lantern Festival. In some cases, the lanterns are also left floating on the water.

The final public holiday in China is the National Day holiday, which falls every year on October 1. Chinese citizens enjoy a week-long holiday (Golden week) for the National Day. The holiday runs from 1-2 October in Macao, and only on 1 October in Hong Kong.

Chinese National Day is celebrated on October 1 every year to commemorate the founding of People’s Republic of China. On that day, many large-scaled activities are held nationwide.

Chung Yeung Festival is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which works out to October or, at least, some time during Autumn, on the Gregorian Calendar.

It is also called “Double Yang” because the number nine is thought to stand for yang, in regard to the Chinese tradition of ying and yang. But nine also stands for long life, which is why Chung Yeung Festival is a day to celebrate long life.

All Souls' Day is a public holiday in Macao which falls on November 2, 2023. All Souls’ Day is a time when people think about, pray for, and gives alms on behalf of, dearly departed believers. Mostly, each family pays attention to their own ancestors in particular.

The Feast of Immaculate Conception is a traditional local feast that has a long-standing history. Being an important date of the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Diocese of Macao, this day is designated as one of the public holidays of Macao – the only place in Asia to have it as a public holiday.

Usually on this day, the churches in Macao organize great masses, also including a procession in honor of Virgin Mary, while some local catholic schools also hold religious activities on that date.

Macao SAR (Special Administrative Region) Establishment Day is observed every December 20. The day celebrates the change of status of Macao from a Portuguese dependency to a Chinese special administrative region. Thus, it marks the end of Macao’s colonial past.

Macao SAR Establishment Day is a great time to get out and explore the plethora of tourist attractions in the city. It is especially an appropriate time to visit the city’s historic center, where you can see old colonial houses, temples, little shops, and narrow cobblestone streets.

The coming of the winter solstice may pass without Westerners giving it much attention, but in Macao, Winter Solstice is an official public holiday. The holiday is held every December 22, creating a multi-day holiday for many with Christmas Eve and Christmas day holidays on 24 and 25 December.

Christmas Day is a public holiday each year in Macao due to the area’s rich Portuguese and Catholic heritage. The holiday usually falls on 25 December.

All over the world, Christmas Day is when the Christian faith celebrates the birth of the messiah, Jesus Christ. This day is celebrated on December 25 by most western countries.

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