Vietnam picks 7-day Tet break for 2027 over 10-day option

Vietnam's civil servants and public employees will get a seven-day Lunar New Year break from Feb. 4 to Feb. 10, 2027, under a holiday schedule the government has approved. Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra agreed to the 2026-2027 holiday plan submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government Office said on Friday.The break runs from the 28th day of the last lunar month of the Year of the Horse through the fifth day of the first lunar month of the Year of the Goat, with Lunar New Year's Day, known as Tet, falling on Feb. 6.It combines the five statutory Tet days with two compensatory days that fall on a weekend. Civil servants and public employees return to work on Feb. 11, the sixth day of the new lunar year. Quang Ba flower market in Hanoi bustles in the days leading up to the Lunar New Year. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy The ministry had also floated a 10-day option running Feb. 5-14, which required swapping a working day.Vietnam had a nine-day Tet break for 2026.Private employers set their own schedules based on business conditions, provided workers get no fewer days off than the law requires.For Tet, they may choose among three arrangements: the last day of the Year of the Horse plus the first four days of the Year of the Goat, for a Feb. 5-11 break; the last two days plus the first three, Feb. 4-10; or the last three days plus the first two, Feb. 3-9.For National Day in 2027, civil servants and public employees get Sept. 3 off as the adjacent day, which combines with the weekend for a four-day break from Sept. 2 to Sept. 5.Vietnam has 12 paid public holidays a year: one day for New Year's Day, five for Tet, one for Hung Kings Commemoration Day, one each for Reunification Day on April 30 and International Labor Day on May 1, two for National Day and one for Vietnam Culture Day on Nov. 24, which was added this year.