Photo: 阿橋 HQ / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Every gazetted 2027 public holiday with its exact date, what each festival actually looks like, and which weeks to avoid if you want a quiet trip.
Singapore packs four cultural calendars into one small island, which means there is almost always something on — and it means the difference between a trip that feels electric and one that feels expensive can come down to which week you booked. This is the 2027 calendar with the exact dates, what each festival actually looks like on the ground, and the honest version of when to avoid it.
The 2027 public holidays
Eleven gazetted days, confirmed by the Ministry of Manpower in June 2026:
- New Year's Day — Friday 1 January
- Chinese New Year — Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February, with Monday 8 February as a holiday in lieu
- Hari Raya Puasa — Wednesday 10 March
- Good Friday — Friday 26 March
- Labour Day — Saturday 1 May
- Hari Raya Haji — Monday 17 May
- Vesak Day — Thursday 20 May
- National Day — Monday 9 August
- Deepavali — Thursday 28 October
- Christmas Day — Saturday 25 December
The two Hari Raya dates follow the Islamic lunar calendar and are confirmed by moon sighting nearer the time, so either can move by a day. Everything else is fixed.
Booking around the season
Rates move with the season more than most people expect, and the difference between two neighbouring weeks can be larger than the difference between two hotels. Tell us the window you are considering and we will quote it against the weeks either side of it.
Chinese New Year — February
The one that changes the city. Chinatown runs a night market for weeks beforehand and the light-up along Eu Tong Sen Street is the best free thing to see all year. The River Hongbao carnival sets up near Marina Bay, and the Chingay parade follows about a fortnight after the new year itself.
The catch is that the first two days are genuinely quiet in the wrong way. Many family-run restaurants and shops close, hawker centres run short stalls, and a first-time visitor who lands on day one can find their carefully researched food list shut. Land a few days before the new year, not on it.
This is also the most expensive week of the year to fly in from India. If your dates are fixed, book early; if they are not, the week after is calmer and cheaper and the decorations are still up.
Thaipusam — January or February
A procession from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India to Sri Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Road, with devotees carrying kavadi. It starts before dawn and runs through the day. Not a public holiday, so the city works around it. It is the most striking thing a visitor can watch in Singapore and costs nothing — stand along the route rather than at either temple, where it is densest.
Hari Raya Puasa — 10 March
The end of Ramadan. The Geylang Serai bazaar runs through the preceding month and is the best night market in the city — hundreds of stalls, most of it food, open late. Kampong Glam and the streets around Sultan Mosque light up. The day itself is family time, so the bazaar is the part to plan for, not the holiday.
Vesak Day — 20 May
Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, marked at temples across the island. The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown and Kong Meng San Phor Kark See in the north are the two to see. Quiet, early and worth the early start. Many observant Buddhists eat vegetarian that day, and temple canteens serve accordingly.
National Day — 9 August
The National Day Parade, fireworks over Marina Bay and a rehearsal on the two preceding Saturdays which most visitors do not know about and which is nearly as good. Parade tickets go by public ballot to residents, so a visitor watches from the waterfront — the Esplanade side, Marina Barrage and the Helix Bridge all work. Get there early; the good spots fill hours ahead.
Mid-Autumn — September or October
Lanterns through Chinatown and Gardens by the Bay, mooncakes everywhere, and lantern displays that are genuinely worth a night out. Not a public holiday. If you are choosing between festivals for a family trip, this is the gentlest one — no crowds on the scale of Chinese New Year and nothing closes.
Deepavali — 28 October
Little India is lit for weeks around it, and the arch along Serangoon Road is the photograph people come back with. There is a street market at the Campbell Lane end and the restaurants are at their best. For Indian travellers this is the strange, pleasant experience of seeing your own festival kept by a city that has made it its own.
The Formula 1 night race — usually late September or October
Worth knowing about even if you have no interest in motorsport, because it is the single biggest thing that happens to Singapore hotel prices. Rooms near Marina Bay double or worse, the circuit closes roads across the civic district for days, and a family trip booked into that week without knowing pays for the privilege. Dates are announced a year ahead — check them before fixing a September or October trip.
Christmas — December
Orchard Road's light-up runs from mid-November to early January and is the largest in the region. Gardens by the Bay runs Christmas Wonderland. December is peak season from India, school holidays overlap, and the second half of the month is the most expensive fortnight of the year after Chinese New Year.
Which weeks to avoid, if you want it quiet
- Chinese New Year week — highest fares, closed small businesses, fullest hotels.
- Mid-December to early January — peak from India, school holidays both ends.
- Formula 1 weekend — hotel prices near Marina Bay are the problem, not the crowds.
- Any long weekend — 2027 gives residents several, and the city's own population travels and eats out on those days.
The quietest good weeks are usually late January before the new year build-up, and the second half of March once Hari Raya and Good Friday have passed.
Planning a trip around one of these
Festival trips are the one case where booking early genuinely saves money rather than just saving worry — flights from India around Chinese New Year and Deepavali fill months ahead, and the hotels closest to where the festival actually happens go first.
We are a Singapore ground operator, so the itinerary we quote is the one our own team runs — hotels, airport transfers, attraction tickets and a car on the days the trains will not do. Tell us your dates on our plan my trip page and we will come back with a costed day-by-day plan built around the festival you are coming for.
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