Hanoi rolls out a festival-filled Tet to welcome the world
Hanoi rolls out a citywide 2026 Tet (Lunar New Year) calendar featuring festivals, heritage sites, fireworks and cultural experiences to attract global visitors.
THE HANOI TIMES — The Hanoi Department of Tourism has announced a program of events, festivals and cultural spaces running through March 17 to promote the image of “Hanoi Tet” to domestic and international visitors, including overseas Vietnamese.
For Vietnamese people, Tet is a time of family reunion, renewal and shared happiness at the start of the Lunar New Year. Photo: Nina May
Through the program, Hanoi aims to turn Tet 2026, Vietnam’s most important holiday, into a large-scale cultural showcase designed to welcome international travelers.
With heritage sites, craft exhibitions, fireworks, festivals and culinary fairs, the capital will deliver an extensive program that immerses visitors in Tet rituals, flavors and communal traditions.
A wide range of activities will take place across the city as Hanoi positions Tet as both a living cultural practice and a globally accessible experience.
The program makes “Hanoi Tet” experiences stand out as rooted in family traditions, craft villages and signature local products, alongside heritage tourism, cuisine and community-based activities throughout the Lunar New Year.
The tradition of making banh chung or Vietnamese traditional sticky rice cake is revived each Tet, symbolizing family unity and the arrival of the Lunar New Year. Photo: Tet Now & Then Page
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"Hanoi Tet" calendar 2026 - Major heritage sites, including the Temple of Literature, Ngoc Son Temple and Hoa Lo Prison, will remain open during the Lunar New Year of the Horse from February 14 to February 22. - The “Tet of a Hanoi Family” program will run through March 17 at the Heritage House, 87 Ma May Street. - The “Greeting the Year of the Horse 2026” exhibition will feature handicrafts and traditional village products, alongside herbal tea experiences and traditional music performances under the theme “Traditional Vietnamese Music in the City,” running through March 17 at the Cultural and Arts Center, 22 Hang Buom Street. - The “Spring Colors of the Year of the Horse” exhibition will run through March 1 at the Ho Guom Cultural Information Center, 2 Le Thai To Street. - The Hanoi Tet Flower Market on Hang Luoc Street, along with 102 other flower markets, will operate through February 16 across 55 communes and wards citywide. - The “Hanoi Tourism Welcome 2026 – Get on Hanoi” program will run through February 1 at the Tay Ho Creative Cultural Space on Trinh Cong Son Street, Tay Ho Ward. - The “Happy Tet 2026” program, themed “Tet is Happiness,” will recreate traditional Tet customs while highlighting the cultural identities of Hanoi and other regions. It will take place from February 6 to February 10 at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel. - The 2026 Lunar New Year Fair, themed “Happy Spring – Reunion during Tet,” will promote Tet goods, specialty products, OCOP items, ornamental plants and flowers, alongside spaces showcasing cultural heritage, cuisine and tourism. The fair will run from February 5 to February 11 at My Dinh Stadium in Tu Liem Ward. - The Lunar New Year Calligraphy Festival will take place from February 7 to February 10 at the Temple of Literature. - The “Celebrating Spring and Welcoming Tet” program will recreate Tet celebrations of Vietnamese ethnic groups on February 7, 8, 14 and 15 at the Vietnam National Village of Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Doai Phuong Commune. - Calligraphy displays and folk games will be held at Van Lake and the Temple of Literature before, during and after the Lunar New Year. - The “Farewell to the Past Year, Welcome the New Year” ceremony will be held on February 10 at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel. - Exhibitions on traditional Tet customs, royal Tet rituals during the Le Trung Hung period, “Tet in Memory,” and “Vietnamese Cultural Heritage – Vitality from Tradition to Modernity” will run from February 9 through March at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel. - A New Year’s Eve fireworks display will take place on February 17 at 31 firing points across 32 locations, including 11 sites combining high- and low-altitude fireworks and 21 low-altitude-only locations. - The Dong Da Mound Festival will be held on February 21 at the Dong Da Mound Historical Site in Dong Da Ward. - The Hai Ba Trung Festival will take place on February 22 at the Hai Ba Trung Temple National Special Monument in Me Linh Commune. - The Huong Pagoda Festival will run from February through April, with its opening ceremony on February 22 at the Huong Son Historical Site and Landscape Complex in Huong Son Commune. - The “Spring Festival” will be held on February 21–22 at the Vietnam National Village of Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Doai Phuong Commune. - The Soc Temple Festival will take place from February 22 to February 24 at the Soc Temple Complex in Soc Son Commune. - The Spring Offering Ceremony for the Year of the Horse 2026 will be held on February 25 at the Kinh Thien Palace Courtyard, Thang Long Imperial Citadel. - The “Spring Colors Across the Nation” Festival will run from February 27 to March 1 at the Vietnam National Village of Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Doai Phuong Commune, featuring the Central Highlands Gong Festival, cultural highlights from Ca Mau Province and a recreation of southern Vietnamese Tet celebrations under the theme “Spring Arrives on the Land of Pink Lotus.” 
Vivid spring blossoms brighten the mountainous landscapes of northern Vietnam. Photo: Hoang Cuong |
