This year’s Chinese New Year (CNY) falls on Wednesday, January 29, and the annual CNY parade will take place on January 31 and February 8, with 17 floats and more than 30 performance groups from Macau and elsewhere.
As in previous years, the first session of the float parade will start at 8 p.m. on the third day of the Chinese New Year on January 31 in Sai Van Lake Square (西灣湖廣場), moving through Avenida Dr Sun Yat-Sen (孫逸仙大馬路) and passing the Macau Science Centre (澳門科學館) until it reaches the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf (澳門漁人碼頭) in Nape. The second session of the float parade will set off also at 8 p.m. but on the 11th day of the Chinese New Year on February 8 from Estrada Marginal da Ilha Verde (青洲河邊馬路), passing through Avenida do Conselheiro Borja (青洲大馬路), Estrada do Arco (拱形馬路), Estrada da Areia Preta (黑沙環馬路), Avenida de Venceslau de Morais (慕拉士大馬路), Rua Quatro do Bairro da Areia Preta (黑沙環第四街), Avenida da Longevidade (長壽大馬路), Rua do Mercado de Iao Hon (市場街), and ending in Iao Hon Market Park in the northern district. Two performances will be held respectively at 5:30 p.m. on January 31 and 8:15 p.m. on February 8 in Sai Van Lake Square and Iao Hon Market Park, the first before and the second after the float parade.
The arrangements were announced by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) during a press conference on Friday at the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre.
According to MGTO, on top of performers from Macau, Hong Kong and the mainland, there will be about 1,300 performers from Colombia, France, India, Romania and Spain, as well as troupes from Zhejiang Province’s Huzhou City, Japan’s Kamakura City and South Korea’s Anseong City, which, like Macau, have all been selected as “Culture Cities of East Asia” in 2025.
An MGTO statement noted that in addition to the traditional grandstands in Sai Van Lake Square, Avenida Dr Sun Yat-Sen, the front square of the Kun Iam Ecumenical Centre and the roundabout in front of the Macau Science Centre, this year, a new grandstand complete with 1,000 seats will be added to the viewing area of the Roman amphitheatre at the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, resulting in a total of more than 4,300 seats in all five viewing areas.
The 17 floats will be displayed at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf on February 1-7 and in Tap Seac Square on February 9-16.
The total budget for the whole event amounts to 34.8 million patacas, an increase of 3.2 percent over last year’s, of which 18 million patacas will be borne by the city’s six integrated resort (IR) operators, MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes said, adding she expected the number of visitors to the two parades this year to increase by 10 percent compared to last year, reaching 85,000 visitors.
The remainder will be borne by the government.
3 CNY fireworks, 15 minutes each
As part of the CNY celebratory events, three firework displays are scheduled at 9:45 p.m. on January 31 and at 9 p.m. on February 4 and February 12 off the Macau Tower for 15 minutes each, while the annual walking tour by Caishen (God of Wealth – 財神), the gods of the three stars – Fuk (Fortune), Luk (Prosperity), and Sau (Longevity) (福祿壽), the Golden Dragon, the Golden Boy and Jade Girl (金童玉女), MGTO mascot “Mak Mak” and the traditional Dragon and Lion Dance will take place on January 29 and 30 this year.
This handout photo provided by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) shows Friday’s press conference at the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre in Nam Van about the upcoming Chinese New Year celebratory events.
Macau to see surge in visitors during CNY holiday: tourism chief
Speaking to the media after the press conference, the tourism chief said that MGTO is set to welcome a surge in visitor arrivals as the mainland’s Chinese New Year holiday season unfolds, predicting a daily average of about 185,000.
Senna Fernandes said she expected the number of visitors to Macau this year to reach 38-39 million, “very close to the pre-COVID pandemic level in 2019”, with an average of 185,000 visitors per day, a year-on-year increase of about 9 percent, thanks to various travel promotion measures by the central government.
In pre-pandemic 2019, Macau welcomed a record 39.4 million visitor arrivals, according to official statistics.
Among the total number of visitors, apart from those from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Senna Fernandes said she expected a daily average of 8,000 foreign visitor arrivals, up 17 percent compared with that of last year.
