Chinese New Year in Singapore: What’s Open, What’s Closed and Where to See the Celebrations

1. When Chinese New Year falls and how the days off work

This coming new year, day 1 falls on Saturday 6 February and day 2 on Sunday 7 February, and Monday 8 February is also a public holiday because day 2 is a Sunday. The eve, Friday 5 February, stays a working day in law. The Ministry of Manpower sets the dates and lists them on its public holidays page.

Newcomers tend to miss that the eve is a half day in practice. Families leave work early for the reunion dinner, and banks, post offices and supermarkets close in the afternoon; the closing times are in the next section. If you need a bank counter or want to send a parcel, do it before Friday lunchtime.

The date moves with the lunar calendar. Day 1 lands somewhere between 21 January and 20 February, so in some years the holiday is in late January and in others in February. Chinese New Year has 2 public-holiday days, day 1 and day 2. When one of them is a Sunday, the next working day is a day off; when one is a Saturday, there is no extra public holiday, and employers give staff another day off or a day’s pay instead.

Count the season from day 1, not from the month

Because the date shifts, the events around the holiday are easier to plan if you count the days before and after day 1. The table shows how the season has run in recent years. The 15th day, known locally by its Hokkien name Chap Goh Meh, ends the festive period, and most programmes finish around then.

Dates for this coming new year are not out yet, though the Chinatown committee has said its street lights will go up again. Each organiser announces on its own timetable: Chinatown publishes its programme in January, River Hongbao posts its schedule close to the opening, and Chingay tickets go on sale in November or December. The Singapore Tourism Board collects the details on the Visit Singapore Chinese New Year page. The dates and hours in this guide are the ones that repeated over the last few seasons, so use them to plan and check the official page before you go.

2. What’s open and shut on the eve, day 1 and day 2

The eve is a short working day, day 1 is when the most places close, day 2 is about halfway back to normal, and from day 3 almost everything runs as usual. Attractions, the big tourist malls and the trains keep going through all of it, so the holiday changes where you eat and shop more than what you can see.

On the eve, closing times come early: bank branches around 1pm, post offices at 1pm, Sheng Siong supermarkets at 4pm and ordinary FairPrice stores at 5pm. Restaurants that serve reunion dinners stay open for those bookings, the Chinatown bazaar trades until 1am, and the trains and buses run late that night.

Day 1 is the quiet day. Many Chinese-run businesses close, from family hawker stalls to small shops in Chinatown. Bank branches, polyclinics and nearly all post offices are shut, while attractions, hotels and the large malls stay open, and the trains follow their normal timetable.

On day 2, most FairPrice stores are usually back to normal hours (in one recent year that waited until day 3), but Sheng Siong still opens only some of its stores. More stalls reopen, though some family businesses stay closed until day 3 or later. When day 2 is a Sunday, as it is this coming new year, banks and polyclinics also stay closed on the Monday.

Places you can count on

• Lau Pa Sat, the food centre at Raffles Quay, listed as open 24 hours on all 3 days the last two times.
• Mustafa Centre in Little India, open 24 hours with no holiday closure notice in recent years.
• FairPrice 24-hour stores, about 36 of which stayed open through the eve last time.
• Gardens by the Bay📍Map, whose conservatory domes keep their normal 9am to 9pm hours.
• The Mandai wildlife parks, open normal hours at peak-day prices.
• The National Museum, Asian Civilisations Museum, Peranakan Museum, National Gallery, ArtScience Museum📍Map and the Singapore Flyer, none of which posted holiday closures.
• Jewel and the restaurants at Changi Airport.
• The big tourist malls: ION Orchard, VivoCity, Suntec City, Bugis Junction, Raffles City and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands📍Map, where the Watsons stores kept normal hours on all 3 days last time.

Where it gets thin

Chinatown’s own malls shorten their hours the most. Going by the Watsons stores there last time, shops in Chinatown Point and People’s Park Complex closed at 4pm on the eve and opened only from 12pm to 4pm on day 1, and the Watsons in Ngee Ann City closed for the whole of day 1. Chinese-run hawker stalls, bank branches, polyclinics, post offices and the money changers in town are the other gaps.

3. Eating over the holiday: hawker centres and restaurants by name

You can eat well on day 1 if you know where to go: Lau Pa Sat📍Map runs 24 hours, the big hawker centres open with fewer stalls, and the chain restaurants post their holiday hours. The gaps are the family-run stalls, many of which take the first days of the new year off.

None of the big hawker centres, including Maxwell, Chinatown Complex📍Map, Newton, Tekka📍Map, Geylang Serai, Old Airport Road, Amoy Street and Tiong Bahru, was closed for cleaning in Chinese New Year week the last two times. So the centre is open and each stall decides whether to trade. Halal Malay and Indian stalls are the ones most likely to be open on day 1 and day 2. For which stalls are worth the trip on a normal day, see our guide to Singapore hawker food.

The hawker centres run by Kopitiam list “selected stalls” for day 1 and day 2, and one of them listed only its halal stalls. Lau Pa Sat, also on Kopitiam’s list, was open 24 hours across the eve and both holiday days. Food Folks, the food court inside Lau Pa Sat, closed on day 1 and day 2, and nothing has been published about the satay stalls on the street outside, so don’t count on them.

Restaurant hours by name

These are the hours each restaurant posted the last two times, or the last time for Old Chang Kee. They tend to repeat, but check the restaurant’s own page in the week before.

Famous stalls: check their own posts

Stalls such as Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at Maxwell, Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle and Song Fa Bak Kut Teh have no official holiday notice you can find in advance. Chinese-run stalls commonly close for the first days, and owners post their dates on Facebook or Instagram a week or two before. If one is on your list, look for that post rather than an old blog, and keep a second choice from the Michelin Bib Gourmand list in case it is shut.

Reunion dinner, yusheng and surcharges

The eve is the night of the reunion dinner. Many restaurants serve set menus for that evening only, and tables are booked weeks ahead. Hotel set menus over the season have cost about S$118 to S$168 per person. Yusheng, the raw fish salad tossed at the table, costs from about S$40 at casual places to several hundred dollars at hotels.

Some restaurants and coffee shops add a surcharge on the holiday days. Past cases include 10% at some restaurants, an extra S$0.20 on drinks at some coffee-shop groups, and a per-person charge at a Chinatown restaurant. Singapore’s price-transparency guidelines say a surcharge must be shown clearly, so look for a notice at the counter or on the menu and ask before you order.

4. Shopping, money, post and seeing a doctor

Buy groceries before 4pm on the eve, change money before the eve or at the airport, and if you fall ill, use the government’s list of GP clinics that open over the holiday. Here is how each service has run over the last few holidays.

FairPrice📍Map has kept its 24-hour stores open through the eve and day 1 the last three times, and went back to normal hours on day 2 in two of those years. Sheng Siong’s pattern has repeated each recent year. If you are staying in a serviced apartment, stock up by the morning of the eve, before the early closing.

Money

Bank branches close early on the eve, DBS and POSB at 1pm and other banks between late morning and early afternoon, then stay shut on both holiday days and the extra Monday. ATMs work around the clock, including those in every Changi Airport📍Map terminal and at Jewel B1.

Money changers in town, such as those at The Arcade in Raffles Place, are generally closed on Sundays and public holidays and post no holiday notice. Change money before the eve, or at Changi Airport, which has money changers in every terminal. Our guide to money changers and paying in Singapore covers rates and cards. Locals queue at banks for new notes to put in red packets, but that service runs on pre-booking for bank customers and is not really open to visitors.

Post

Post offices close at 1pm on the eve. On the holiday days only a few post offices open, and only for part of the day, so check SingPost’s holiday notice before you go. If you have a parcel to send, the easiest plan is to do it by the eve morning or wait until day 3.

If you fall ill

The Ministry of Health has published a list of GP clinics open over Chinese New Year the last three times, about 1,100 clinics at varying hours. Search it by area and date on GPGoWhere. Polyclinics are closed on public holidays. Hospital A&E departments stay open for serious emergencies, and the NurseFirst hotline on 6262 6262 gave advice from 8am to 11pm last time.

5. Chinatown: the light-up, the street bazaar and the countdown

In recent years Chinatown has lit 4 main streets from about 3 weeks before day 1, run a street bazaar until 1am on the eve and held a countdown party with firecrackers at midnight. The programme is announced in January on chinatownfestivals.sg, so check there before you plan around it.

The lights cover New Bridge Road, Eu Tong Sen Street, South Bridge Road and Upper Cross Street. They come on at an opening ceremony at 6pm in Kreta Ayer Square📍Map and stay up until about 4 weeks after day 1, lit from 7pm to midnight. On the eve they stay on until 6am on day 1. The centrepiece is the zodiac animal of the year, which this coming new year is the Goat; its design went to a public vote.

The Mid-Autumn Festival before this coming new year was done differently: for the first time in 24 years Chinatown did not light up Eu Tong Sen Street and New Bridge Road, and hung lanterns in Kreta Ayer Square and Banda Street instead. That change was for Mid-Autumn only. The festival committee’s chairman said at the time that the Chinese New Year street lights will carry on. What is still to come is the dates and the programme, so treat the hours here as the recent pattern until January.

Hours and places

The bazaar has over 200 stalls selling pineapple tarts, bak kwa, yusheng packs, decorations and mandarin oranges. It runs for about 3 weeks and ends at 1am on the eve, so by day 1 most of the stalls are gone. Weekday evenings are the easiest time to walk it.

The countdown on the eve starts at 10pm with a stage show. At midnight long strings of firecrackers go off; there are no fireworks in Chinatown that night, as the fireworks are at River Hongbao. A lion dance competition at the Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre has been held in only two of the last four seasons, so don’t plan around it. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple📍Map at 288 South Bridge Road appears on Visit Singapore’s Chinese New Year page, but its hours on the eve are not published.

A walking order for one evening

1. Come out at Chinatown MRT (NE4/DT19) in the late afternoon and walk the bazaar streets: Pagoda, Trengganu, Smith, Temple and Sago.
2. Cut through to People’s Park Square for the fair before it closes at 10pm.
3. After 7pm, walk New Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street for the lights. In the Year of the Dragon the centrepiece stood on New Bridge Road in front of People’s Park Complex📍Map.
4. Finish along South Bridge Road and Upper Cross Street, or at Kreta Ayer Square if it is the eve and you are staying for the countdown.

The busiest times are weekend nights and the eve. Police close Temple Street to vehicles from 2pm to 1.30am on the eve, and the streets are very crowded until the bazaar ends. For the rest of the area, from food to temples, see our Chinatown guide.

6. River Hongbao at Gardens by the Bay

River Hongbao is a free lantern festival at Gardens by the Bay that opens 2 days before day 1 and runs for 10 days, with the longest night on the eve, from 6.30pm to 12.15am. There are no tickets. You walk in through bag checks at the gated grounds around Supertree Grove📍Map and The Meadow.

The grounds hold sets of lanterns themed on the zodiac animals, a large God of Fortune lantern at The Meadow, a food street, stage shows and carnival rides, including a double-decker carousel. Rides are paid with a ride card bought at the carnival entrance, and the card cannot be refunded, so top up only what you will use.

These hours have been the same the last four times. What goes off at midnight on the eve has changed: there were fireworks last time, and firecrackers instead of fireworks in the two years before. The schedule for each night goes up on riverhongbao.sg before the opening.

Getting there and what to leave behind

Take the MRT to Bayfront (CE1/DT16) and use Exit B and the linkway, or to Gardens by the Bay (TE22) and use Exit 1. The entry checkpoints are at the Floral Clock by the main entrance, at Meadow Bridge from the Bayfront side, and at the Meadow car park. Taxis drop off at Bayfront Plaza or the main entrance. A taxi out of Gardens by the Bay carries a S$3 location charge, and after midnight the 50% late-night charge is added on top.

The festival runs rain or shine. When The Meadow fills up, staff send people to other parts of the grounds, which is most likely on the eve.

• Bicycles, scooters, skateboards and personal mobility devices
• Pets, except guide dogs
• Drones
• Knives and other sharp objects
• Fireworks and flares

The rest of the Gardens that week

During River Hongbao, the usual Supertree light show is replaced by a 5-minute Chinese New Year show at 7.45pm and 8.45pm, free to watch. The Flower Dome📍Map has a Chinese New Year flower display from a Friday in mid-January, which needs a dome ticket, and the domes keep their usual 9am to 9pm hours over the holiday. Supertree Grove and The Meadow close briefly before each night’s opening, and the OCBC Skyway📍Map has shorter hours. More on the domes and tickets is in our Gardens by the Bay guide.

7. Chingay Parade: tickets, dates and how to watch for free

The Chingay Parade is a ticketed night parade held on a Friday and the following Saturday, 9 to 14 days after day 1, starting at 8pm at the F1 Pit Building📍Map. The day, time and venue have been the same the last four times, and the show ended at about 9.30pm last time.

Chingay is run by the People’s Association. Dates and the theme are posted on chingay.gov.sg, and tickets are sold only through SISTIC.

Tickets

Tickets have sold out in most recent years, so if you know your dates, buy as soon as sales open. Prices have stayed the same the last four times.

Watching without a ticket

Before each show there is a free area with installations and performances outside the venue, open from about 5.30pm to 8.30pm last time. The Friday show is streamed live on Chingay’s YouTube and Facebook, and a TV replay follows weeks later. Smaller free shows called Chingay@Heartlands tour the housing estates on the weekends after the parade.

Getting there

Promenade MRT is about an 11-minute walk from the F1 Pit Building, and Esplanade📍Map MRT about 14 minutes. There is no parking at the venue, so come by train or taxi.

8. Temples and other celebrations around the island

Beyond Chinatown and Marina Bay, the main things to see are the day 1 queue at Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, lion dances at Sentosa📍Map, Resorts World, Mandai and Jewel, and free lanterns at the Chinese Garden. Last time the Sentosa, Mandai and Jewel programmes ended around the 15th day, but their end dates change from year to year.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple at 178 Waterloo Street draws long queues on day 1. Older guides still send people there at midnight on the eve for the first joss stick of the year, but the temple has not held that for 6 years. It opens from 7am to 6.30pm on the eve and the following days, and on day 1 people start queuing well before dawn. In one recent year people queued from just after midnight, and the doors opened at about 6.30am. Fortune-stick readings are paused around the holiday.

Sentosa, Resorts World and Mandai

Sentosa has a free light installation in the evenings at Sentosa Sensoryscape, and a lion dance on poles on day 1 and day 2 at 5pm and 6.30pm; the venue has changed between years. See our Sentosa guide for getting there. At Resorts World Sentosa, the Gods of Fortune walk about and a lion dance is performed at the Grand Steps on the morning of day 1. Universal Studios📍Map‘ holiday hours were not published in advance, so check its calendar.

The Mandai wildlife parks keep normal hours, but the holiday days count as peak days with higher prices, and parking is limited on day 1 and day 2. Last time there were lion dances at the Bird Paradise📍Map entrance at 9.30am on the holiday days. Prices and park choices are in our guide to the Singapore Zoo and Mandai parks.

Jewel, Marina Bay and the west

Jewel puts up decorations from about 19 days before day 1. Last time it had a lion dance at 5.38pm on the eve and 12.38pm on day 1, and the Rain Vortex ran until midnight over the season. Marina Bay Sands decorates its shopping centre and lights the building in gold and pink around the holiday. In the west, the Chinese Garden at Jurong Lake Gardens hangs lanterns from about 10 days before day 1 to the 15th day, lit up in the evenings and free to visit. There is no Chinese New Year light-up on Orchard Road; its street lights are for Christmas.

The National Museum of Singapore has opened all its galleries free on the Chinese New Year public holidays the last three times, from 10am to 7pm. The National Library closed at 5pm on the eve and the Former Ford Factory closed on day 1; the other national museums kept their normal hours.

9. Getting around: late trains on the eve, taxis and the Malaysia border

On the eve, trains and buses run late, to about 2am on the North-South and East-West lines and a little earlier on the others, and on day 1 the normal timetable applies. The late running has happened the last four times. SMRT and SBS Transit announce the exact times about 2 weeks before.

The times in the table are from last time, and the City Hall times have barely moved from one year to the next. About 55 bus services also run later, with last buses between 2.30am and 3.30am. The peak-hour express and City Direct buses did not run on the evening of the eve last time.

If you are flying out late on the eve, don’t count on a late train to the airport: the Changi Airport branch keeps its usual hours. Our guide to the MRT and getting around Singapore covers fares and cards.

Taxis and ride-hailing

Flag-down fares differ a little between taxi companies, but the surcharges are the same for all of them and are set by the Land Transport Authority. Public holidays use the weekend surcharge times, and there is no special Chinese New Year surcharge. The full table is on the LTA taxi fares page.

Grab and Gojek use dynamic pricing and publish no holiday surcharge, so expect higher fares around midnight on the eve, when the countdowns end.

Crossing to Malaysia

The land crossings to Malaysia are at their worst around Chinese New Year. ICA warns of very heavy traffic at Woodlands and Tuas from about a week before the new year until after the holiday, and has warned of car waits of up to 3 hours. ICA suggests cross-border buses and QR clearance; its notices are in the ICA newsroom. Leave a Johor Bahru day trip for another week. Ferries to Bintan also charge peak fares over the holiday; see our Batam and Bintan guide.

10. Rooms and crowds over the holiday

Rooms around Chinese New Year cost more than in the weeks before, and the airport, Jewel, Sentosa and Gardens by the Bay are busy. Rooms in Chinatown and around Marina Bay let you walk to the events, so book early if your dates are fixed.

In years when the holiday falls in February, average February room rates have been higher than January’s. The Formula 1 month is still dearer than Chinese New Year. Visitors from mainland China peak around the holiday, Chinese passport holders can stay 30 days without a visa since the visa-free deal, and Changi added hundreds of extra flights to Chinese cities over the season last time.

Where you stay matters most on the eve, when the celebrations end after midnight. If you want the Chinatown countdown and the lights, a room you can walk back to saves a wait for a late train or a taxi. Our guide to staying in Chinatown lists the areas and hotels there.

Where to stay for each plan

For neighbourhoods across the island, see our guide to where to stay in Singapore. If you need a Chinese visa or consular service in Singapore, note that the Chinese Embassy’s consular section closes for about a week over China’s own Spring Festival holiday.

11. A plan for the eve, day 1 and day 2

Spend the eve on errands in the morning and the celebrations at night, day 1 on attractions that stay open, and day 2 on the food and shops that reopen. This order fits the way the city closes and reopens over the three days.

The eve

Do anything that needs a bank, post office or supermarket before lunch. In the late afternoon, walk the Chinatown bazaar on its last day before it closes at 1am. If you have a reunion dinner booked, it will take up the early evening.

1. Morning: change money, buy groceries, post anything.
2. Late afternoon: Chinatown bazaar and People’s Park fair.
3. Evening: reunion dinner, or a hawker meal at Lau Pa Sat.
4. From 10pm: the Chinatown countdown, or River Hongbao, which stays open until 12.15am.
5. After midnight: take a late train home; the North-South and East-West lines run to about 2am and the others stop a little earlier.

Day 1

Many stalls and small shops are closed, so plan around places that open. Go to Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple📍Map early if you want to see the queue, then a lion dance at Resorts World Sentosa📍Map in the morning or Jewel at lunchtime. In the afternoon, Mandai, the museums or Gardens by the Bay are open; River Hongbao opens at 2.30pm, and the National Museum has had free entry on the public holidays.

Day 2

Most FairPrice stores are usually back to normal hours, though Sheng Siong still opens only some stores, and more hawker stalls reopen while some family stalls wait until day 3. This is a good day for the big malls, Sentosa’s evening lion dance at 5pm or 6.30pm, and a second evening at River Hongbao before it closes 7 days after day 1.

12. Chinese New Year customs, in brief

A few customs are worth knowing as a visitor: the yusheng toss, bak kwa, mandarin oranges in pairs, red packets and wearing red when you visit someone. Our Singapore in February guide covers them in detail, along with the weather.

Lo hei is the tossing of yusheng, a salad of raw fish and shredded vegetables. Everyone at the table lifts the strands high with chopsticks while saying wishes for the year, and restaurants serve it through the season.

Food gifts and visiting

Bak kwa is sweet grilled dried meat, given and eaten over the new year. The queue at Lim Chee Guan in Chinatown is longest in the last week before day 1, when it charged about S$80 per kilo last time; Bee Cheng Hiang charged about S$72 to S$74.

When visiting a home, bring 2 mandarin oranges, since oranges are given in pairs. Red packets hold money in even amounts, avoiding the number 4. Wear red if you can, and avoid all black or all white on a visit.

Chinese New Year in Singapore: questions

Planning the rest of your trip? Start with our main Singapore guide.

Browse all our guides →