Chinese New Year 2027 in Bangkok: The Year of the Goat in Yaowarat

Yaowarat is Chinatown every night of the year, but on Chinese New Year it becomes something else: the road closes, lanterns hang from one end to the other, drums sound from the gate to the river, and families in red move between the shrines with incense and oranges. In 2027 the new year falls on Saturday 6 February, and the Year of the Goat begins.

This guide covers the celebration in Bangkok’s Chinatown: what the days mean, the street festival and when it usually runs, the temples to visit and how to behave in them, what to eat, and how to get there and home. The lunar dates are fixed by the calendar. The district’s 2027 programme had not been announced on 3 November 2026, so the festival nights below follow the pattern of 2024 and 2025, and we say so wherever it matters.

What the New Year Means in Yaowarat

Thailand has one of the largest ethnic Chinese communities in the world, and Bangkok’s has lived around Sampeng Lane and Yaowarat Road since the city was founded in 1782. Its new year is a family festival first. The days before are for cleaning the house, so that the year starts clean; on the day itself nobody sweeps, so that the luck is not swept out. Red is everywhere because it is the colour of good fortune, and elders give children ang pao, red envelopes with an even sum of money inside, eight being the luckiest.

The street festival is the public side of all that. Bangkok’s district office, the city, TAT and the Chinese community have run it on Yaowarat for some twenty years, opening at the Chinatown Gate, which was built in 1999 for King Rama IX’s 72nd birthday. HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has presided over the opening in most years.

The Days, Step by Step

Thu 4 Feb

Wan chai, the shopping day. Yaowarat and the Sampeng lanes are packed with families buying offerings, fruit and new clothes.

Fri 5 Feb

Wan wai, the worship day and new year's eve. Offerings to the household gods in the early morning, to the ancestors before noon and to the wandering spirits in the afternoon, then the reunion dinner.

Sat 6 Feb

Wan tieow, new year's day, for visiting family and the temples. The opening night of the street festival, if the 2024 and 2025 pattern holds.

Sun 7 Feb

The second festival night, on the same pattern.

Sat 20 Feb

The Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day, which closes the new year season.

The Street Festival

When it runs, the festival takes over about 850 metres of Yaowarat Road, from Odeon Circle to the Ratchawong junction, closed to traffic from 3 PM to midnight in 2024 and 2025. The opening ceremony is at the gate in the early evening of new year day, with drums, lion and dragon dances and troupes from China; after it the whole road is the stage. Food stalls run down both sides, the shophouse restaurants put tables on the pavement, and a concert stage has stood in front of the Thian Fa Foundation in recent years.

The lights go up before the festival and stay after it: in 2025 TAT lit Yaowarat from Odeon Circle to the Chaloem Buri junction from 19 January to 9 February, and in 2026 from 7 February to 1 March, with lanterns, dragons and light tunnels, from 6 PM to 11 PM in 2026. If you cannot be in Bangkok on the day itself, the lit street in the week before is the gentler way to see it.

A Year of Mourning, and the Return

In 2026 the street festival did not take place. Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, The Queen Mother, died on 24 October 2025, and the organising committee cancelled the festival nights of 17 and 18 February because they fell within the mourning period. The lights still went up along Yaowarat, and TAT moved its celebration to Siam Paragon. The official mourning period has ended and the royal cremation is held in December 2026, so the festival can return to Yaowarat in 2027, but its return had not been announced on 3 November.

The Temples, and How to Visit

New year morning is when Yaowarat’s temples are at their most alive. At Wat Mangkon Kamalawat families make merit, shake fortune sticks and, if their zodiac sign clashes with the Goat, join the rites to turn the bad luck away. The smaller shrines, Thian Fa’s Guan Yin, the Leng Buai Ia shrine and the Guan Yu shrine in the old market, fill with incense from about 7 AM. Most close at 5 or 6 PM, so do the temples in the morning and the street at night.

Visitors are welcome everywhere. Cover shoulders and knees, let worshippers go first and keep photographs discreet: these are working shrines on their busiest morning of the year. You will see oranges placed on the altars in pairs, with the three meats and the steamed cakes of the worship day.

What to Eat

The reunion dinner is at home: fish for abundance, long noodles for long life, dumplings for wealth. The street is where everyone else eats. Roast duck and crispy pork from the shophouse kitchens, kuay jab rolled-noodle soup with pepper, oyster omelettes from the flaming woks, salapao buns, khao man gai, and bua loi in hot ginger syrup to finish. The famous stalls have a queue every night of the year and a longer one at new year; arrive early in the evening and eat as you walk.

Getting There, and Home

The MRT is the only sensible way in. Wat Mangkon station on the Blue Line opens onto Charoen Krung Road, exit 1, a five-minute walk from the gate; Hua Lamphong and Sam Yot stations are both within ten minutes. By river, take the Chao Phraya Express to Ratchawong Pier and walk fifteen minutes up Ratchawong Road to the far end of the festival. Taxis and cars are a mistake on festival nights: the road is closed and the lanes around it are solid.

The crowds are heavy, especially after dark on new year night. Carry water, keep your phone and wallet in front of you, and agree a meeting point. The Tourist Police hotline is 1155 and TAT’s information line 1672.

The Rest of the Season

Chinese New Year opens the Thai calendar’s second season. Before it, New Year’s Eve in Bangkok fills the rooftops and the river; after it, Songkran brings the Thai New Year from 13 to 15 April. Yaowarat is ten minutes from the river, and a dinner cruise from one of the riverside piers is an easy way to end a new year evening. The season calendar has every date.