The ministry filed the plan on Sept. 11, Nguyen Thi Quyen, deputy director of its Department of Employment, said at a press conference that afternoon. Civil servants and public employees would take the five statutory Tet days, two before the new year and three after, covering Feb. 4 through Feb. 8.

Feb. 6 and 7 fall on a Saturday and Sunday, so they would receive compensatory days on Feb. 9 and 10.

The break would span 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.

Staff would return to work on the sixth day of Tet, Feb. 11.

Quang Ba flower market in Hanoi bustles in the days before Tet. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

A seven-day break would give people working far from home more time to prepare and travel for the holiday, Quyen said.

Private employers would set their own Tet schedules for workers based on the civil service calendar.

The ministry circulated two options to ministries and agencies in early August. The other ran 10 days.

For National Day in 2027, the ministry has proposed a four-day break from Sept. 2 to Sept. 5, combining the two statutory days, Sept. 2 and 3, with the weekend.

Vietnam has 12 paid public holidays a year: one for New Year's Day, five for Tet, one for the Hung Kings Commemoration, one for Reunification Day on April 30, one for International Labor Day on May 1, and two for National Day.

The 12th is Vietnam Culture Day on Nov. 24, which a National Assembly resolution added this year.