The Smell of Gunpowder and Egg Tarts
The first thing you notice in Macau during Chinese New Year isn’t the red lanterns or the gold calligraphy banners — it’s the smoke. Firecrackers are still legal here, one of the only places left in the region where they are, and the sharp sulfur smell hangs over the old town for days. It mixes with something sweeter drifting out of the bakeries along Rua do Cunha: fresh egg tarts, almond cookies, the kind of sugary pork jerky that comes vacuum-packed but still tastes better warm.
Macau’s Lunar New Year runs from February 1 to 15, 2026. It’s not the biggest Chinese New Year celebration in Asia — Hong Kong’s is flashier, Singapore’s is more organized — but it might be the strangest. Four hundred years of Portuguese colonization left behind pastel-colored churches, cobblestone squares, and a cuisine that puts bacalhau next to char siu. During the festival, all of that collides.
The Float Parade, Honestly
The International Chinese New Year Float Parade is the headline event, and it’s genuinely worth seeing — though maybe not for the reasons the tourism board would emphasize. The floats themselves are fine. Some are elaborate, some look like they were assembled the week before. What makes it work is the chaos: Brazilian samba dancers next to a Cantonese lion dance troupe, a Korean drum ensemble followed by a group of local kids in matching tracksuits waving flags.
The route typically starts near the Ruins of St. Paul’s and winds through Senado Square. ‘Typically’ is doing some work in that sentence — the exact route and dates shift year to year, so check the Macau Government Tourism Office closer to February. The parade usually happens on the first day and third day of the Lunar New Year, but I’ve seen conflicting information about whether 2026 follows the same pattern.
Practical note: if you want a decent viewing spot, you need to be there two to three hours early. The sidewalks along Senado Square fill up fast. Some people bring folding stools, which is smart. Standing for three hours on cobblestones is less fun than it sounds.
Where the Incense Gets Thick
The temples are the quieter counterpart to the parade, and honestly more interesting if you’re not a parade person. A-Ma Temple — the one Macau is supposedly named after — sits at the base of Barra Hill and draws serious crowds during the first few days. People line up to light the first incense of the year, which is considered especially auspicious. The smoke gets dense enough inside that your clothes will smell like sandalwood for the rest of the day.
Kun Iam Temple in the northern part of the peninsula is bigger and less cramped. The Na Tcha Temple, tiny and wedged right next to the Ruins of St. Paul’s, is worth a quick visit mostly for the absurd contrast — a miniature Chinese temple pressed against the facade of a 17th-century Jesuit church.
The firecracker events are harder to pin down. Macau used to be famous for its New Year firecrackers, and there are still organized displays, but the scale has apparently decreased over the years. Worth asking around when you arrive, or checking local news.
The Food Situation
Macau’s food scene doesn’t need Chinese New Year as an excuse, but the festival adds a few seasonal things worth seeking out.
Rua do Cunha in Taipa Village is the obvious starting point — it’s basically a pedestrian food street lined with shops selling almond cookies, pork jerky, and egg tarts. During New Year, you’ll also find rice cakes (nian gao) and turnip cakes (lo bak go) at various stalls. The rice cakes are the sticky, sweet kind — some places pan-fry them with egg, which is the way to go.
For sit-down meals, the Macanese restaurants are the unique draw. This isn’t Portuguese food and it isn’t Cantonese food — it’s a genuine hybrid cuisine that developed over centuries. African chicken (galinha à africana), minchi (a ground meat hash that every family makes differently), and bacalhau croquettes. Most of these places are in the Taipa and Coloane areas. I’ve heard good things about Riquexo in Taipa but haven’t been personally.
Getting There and Getting Around
Macau is small. Like, really small — you can walk across the peninsula in about 40 minutes. During the festival, walking is usually the best option anyway because traffic gets messy near the parade routes.
The casino shuttle buses are Macau’s unofficial public transit system. They’re free, they run frequently, and they connect the ferry terminal, the border gate, and the Cotai Strip. You don’t need to be a guest or a gambler to use them. The public bus system works too — routes 3, 10, and 10A cover most of the tourist areas — but during New Year the buses get packed.
From Hong Kong, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge bus takes about 45 minutes. The ferry from Sheung Wan or Tsim Sha Tsui is another option — roughly an hour. If you’re booking ferry tickets during Chinese New Year, do it early. They sell out.
For flights and hotels, the prices spike predictably during the festival. If you can, book at least a month ahead. The hotels in the old town area (near Senado Square) put you closer to the festival action but tend to be smaller and pricier per square meter than the mega-resorts on the Cotai Strip. Trip.com usually has decent Macau hotel deals if you book early enough, and for activities like temple tours or food walks, KLOOK lists a few Macau-specific experiences.
The Crowds Problem
Let’s be direct about this: Macau during Chinese New Year is crowded. Not just ‘busy’ — uncomfortably packed in certain areas. Senado Square on parade night, Rua do Cunha on any afternoon, the border gate crossing from Zhuhai. If you have a low tolerance for crowds, this might not be the ideal time to visit.
The worst bottleneck is the border gate. Mainland Chinese visitors make up the majority of Macau’s tourists, and during the Spring Festival holiday, the crossing can take over an hour. If you’re coming from Zhuhai, try the Hengqin port instead — it’s newer and generally less congested, though still not exactly peaceful during New Year.
Hotel prices during the festival can be double or triple the normal rate. The Cotai mega-resorts sometimes offer package deals that bundle rooms with dining credits, which can soften the blow a bit. Budget travelers might consider staying in Zhuhai and doing Macau as a day trip, though you’ll miss the parade if you leave early.
Beyond the Red Lanterns
The UNESCO-listed Historic Centre of Macau is the real draw of this city, festival or not. The walking route from Senado Square through the old town — past the Cathedral, the Dom Pedro V Theatre, St. Augustine’s Church — takes about two hours if you stop to look at things properly. Most of it is free.
Coloane Village on the southern tip of the island is the antidote to everything else. Narrow streets, pastel houses, a few local restaurants, and Lord Stow’s Bakery where the Macanese egg tart was supposedly invented. During New Year, it’s noticeably quieter than the peninsula — most of the festival action is concentrated around Senado Square and the Cotai Strip.
When I left Macau last time, it was through the ferry terminal and I had egg tart crumbs on my jacket and a coil of temple incense ash in my hair that I didn’t notice until I got back to Hong Kong. The border guard gave me a look. Fair enough.
