Two teams count from the same date and land on different deadlines. Neither miscounted — they just treated holidays differently.
That happens because Hong Kong maintains two separate holiday systems, and the one you use changes the answer. Here is the full 2026 picture.
2026 General Holidays at a glance
Hong Kong has 17 General Holidays in 2026 under the General Holidays Ordinance (Cap. 149). Two required Sunday substitution this year.
| Date | Day | Holiday | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | Thu | New Year's Day | Fixed |
| 17 Feb | Tue | Lunar New Year's Day | Lunar calendar |
| 18 Feb | Wed | Second day of Lunar New Year | Lunar calendar |
| 19 Feb | Thu | Third day of Lunar New Year | Lunar calendar |
| 3 Apr | Fri | Good Friday | Easter-based |
| 4 Apr | Sat | Day following Good Friday | Easter-based |
| 6 Apr | Mon | Day following Ching Ming Festival | Ching Ming 5 Apr (Sun); substitute is next non-holiday day |
| 7 Apr | Tue | Day following Easter Monday | Easter-based |
| 1 May | Fri | Labour Day | Fixed |
| 25 May | Mon | Day following the Birthday of the Buddha | Original date 24 May (Sun) |
| 19 Jun | Fri | Tuen Ng Festival | Lunar calendar |
| 1 Jul | Wed | HKSAR Establishment Day | Fixed |
| 26 Sep | Sat | Day following Mid-Autumn Festival | Lunar calendar |
| 1 Oct | Thu | National Day | Fixed |
| 19 Oct | Mon | Day following Chung Yeung Festival | Chung Yeung 18 Oct (Sun) |
| 25 Dec | Fri | Christmas Day | Fixed |
| 26 Dec | Sat | First weekday after Christmas Day | Fixed |
The Sunday substitution rule
When a General Holiday falls on a Sunday, the next day that is not itself a General Holiday becomes the substitute.
In 2026, three holidays trigger this rule — and one of them creates a chain reaction:
Ching Ming Festival (5 April): Falls on Sunday. Monday 6 April becomes the substitute ("Day following Ching Ming Festival"). But Easter Monday would also have landed on 6 April, so the government bumps it to Tuesday 7 April ("Day following Easter Monday"). The result: a five-day block of consecutive non-working days from Good Friday through Tuesday.
Birthday of the Buddha (24 May): Falls on Sunday. Substitute: Monday 25 May.
Chung Yeung Festival (18 October): Falls on Sunday. Substitute: Monday 19 October.
The April cluster: five days you cannot afford to miss
The most consequential holiday pattern in 2026 is the five-day block from Friday 3 April to Tuesday 7 April:
- Good Friday
- Day following Good Friday
- Easter Sunday
- Day following Ching Ming Festival
- Day following Easter Monday
It is easy to underestimate because only part of it carries the Easter label. In practice, this block shuts down court registries, stamps offices, and most professional offices for the best part of a week. Any court filing, conveyancing working-day period, or internal approval window that overlaps this cluster needs to be planned around it — not through it.
General Holidays vs Statutory Holidays: the split that trips people up
Hong Kong runs two parallel holiday systems — and they do not fully align until 2030.
General Holidays (Cap. 149) are the 17 days that banks, schools, and government offices observe. The list has been fixed at 17 since 1997.
Statutory Holidays (Cap. 57) are the minimum paid holidays employers must give employees. Historically only 12–13 days, these are being expanded to 17 through a phased rollout:
| Year | Holiday added | Statutory total |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Birthday of the Buddha | 13 |
| 2024 | First weekday after Christmas Day | 14 |
| 2026 | Easter Monday | 15 |
| 2028 | Good Friday | 16 |
| 2030 | Day following Good Friday | 17 |
In 2026, Easter Monday becomes a statutory holiday for the first time. By 2030, statutory and general holidays will fully align.
Why this matters for calculations: If you are counting working days for an employment-related deadline, confirm whether the governing rule references "general holidays" or "statutory holidays" — the answer determines which days you exclude.
What "5 working days" actually looks like in April 2026
A contract gives you 5 working days after Wednesday 1 April to complete a step, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and General Holidays. Sounds like a week. It is not:
| Date | Counted? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Thu 2 Apr | Yes | Working day 1 |
| Fri 3 Apr | No | Good Friday |
| Sat 4 Apr | No | Weekend / General Holiday (Day following Good Friday) |
| Sun 5 Apr | No | Weekend / Ching Ming original date |
| Mon 6 Apr | No | Day following Ching Ming Festival |
| Tue 7 Apr | No | Day following Easter Monday |
| Wed 8 Apr | Yes | Working day 2 |
| Thu 9 Apr | Yes | Working day 3 |
| Fri 10 Apr | Yes | Working day 4 |
| Mon 13 Apr | Yes | Working day 5 |
The deadline lands on Monday 13 April — nearly two calendar weeks after the start date. Miss this and it is not a rounding error; it is the kind of slip that produces avoidable disputes about whether a date was "obvious."
How holidays affect different deadline types
Not all deadlines treat holidays the same way:
- Employment notice periods (Cap. 57): Counted in calendar days. Holidays and weekends are included in the count, not excluded.
- Stamp duty (Cap. 117): The 30-day stamping deadline runs in calendar days, including holidays.
- Court filings: Court registries close on General Holidays. Documents filed electronically during closure are deemed received when the registry reopens.
- Conveyancing: Working-day deadlines in property transactions exclude General Holidays, Saturdays, and typhoon/rainstorm warning days.
- MPF contributions (Cap. 485): The 10th-of-month deadline shifts to the next business day if it falls on a General Holiday.
Four mistakes that keep coming up
- Using last year's holiday list. Lunar holidays shift every year. Ching Ming was 4 April in 2025 but 5 April in 2026 — one day's difference, but enough to change a substitution chain.
- Ignoring substitution cascades. Ching Ming falls on Sunday, so the substitute takes Monday. That bumps Easter Monday's slot to Tuesday. If you only check original dates, you miss the extra day.
- Treating "public holiday" as a universal term. In Hong Kong, "public holidays" colloquially means the 17 General Holidays (Cap. 149). Statutory Holidays (Cap. 57) are a different, shorter list. Using the wrong one changes your count.
- Assuming "business day" = "working day." Some contracts define them differently. Always check the source rule.
Pre-calculation checklist
Before counting, run through five questions:
- Does the rule exclude General Holidays, Statutory Holidays, or neither?
- Is the period counted in working days or calendar days?
- Are there any Sunday substitutions in the relevant month?
- Does the period overlap a holiday cluster (Easter/Ching Ming, CNY, October)?
- How is "business day" defined — by statute, by contract, or by assumption?
The holiday list is only one input. The same date can produce different results under an employment contract, a court rule, and a conveyancing agreement. For a deeper comparison, see working days vs calendar days.
Where the calculator helps
The HK calculator uses the 2026 gazetted holiday list and lets you:
- Count working days forward or backward from any date
- See exactly which days were excluded and why
- Compare results with and without the CNY Extended Shutdown applied
- Verify your manual calculations against a consistent rule set
Quick answers
How many General Holidays does Hong Kong have in 2026?
There are 17 General Holidays in 2026, including substitution days where the original holiday falls on a Sunday.
What happens when a General Holiday falls on Sunday?
The substitute holiday moves to the next weekday that is not already a General Holiday. In 2026, Ching Ming's substitute falls on Monday 6 April ("Day following Ching Ming Festival"), and the government designates Tuesday 7 April as "Day following Easter Monday."
Do employment notice periods stop running on General Holidays?
Usually no. Employment notice periods are generally counted in calendar days, so weekends and General Holidays stay in the count unless the contract or specific rule says otherwise.
For scenario-based examples, see the Use Cases. For details on the calculator's assumptions, see the Info Guide.
