Sourcing From Vietnam Around Tet: Planning Your 2027 Deliveries
30 Oct 2026Tet, the Vietnamese lunar new year, falls on Saturday 6 February 2027. If you are buying handwoven homeware from Vietnam for spring or summer 2027, the deadline that decides your season is not the one in your shipping plan. It is the point in January when the weaving villages wind down and people start travelling home. Everything else, sampling, production, inspection and loading, has to fit in front of that date.
Key takeaways
- Tet 2027 is 6 February. Preparations fill the fortnight before it, and the public holiday run is set and announced by the government each year.
- Handwoven goods feel it more than machine made ones, because weaving is seasonal household work spread across villages.
- Book freight early. DHL notes that shippers rush to move goods before lunar new year factory closures, creating sharp and predictable peaks.
- Plan backwards from your in store date rather than forwards from today, and confirm production time per design with your supplier.
When exactly is Tet in 2027?
Tet Nguyen Dan marks the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese lunisolar calendar, so the date moves. It usually falls between late January and 20 February. In 2027 it is 6 February, opening the year of the Goat. The celebration itself can run from a single day to a full week, and the two weeks before the new year are given over to preparation, with families returning to their home towns.
The official public holiday is confirmed by the Vietnamese government ahead of each new year, so the exact run of days for 2027 is something to check rather than assume. What does not move is the shape of it: a busy fortnight of preparation, the holiday itself, and a gradual return afterwards. Ask your supplier for their own calendar in writing as soon as it is set.
Why Tet matters more for handwoven goods
A machine line restarts when the power goes back on. Hand weaving restarts when the weavers do. We employ 30 full time staff at our factory in Nga Son, and we work with 500 to 600 seasonal weavers in the surrounding villages, who weave alongside farming and family work. That structure is what gives Vietnamese handicraft its capacity and its character, and it is also why the weeks either side of Tet behave differently from the rest of the year.
If you have not seen how that network operates, we described it in inside the seagrass weaving village of Nga Son and followed a single piece through the process in from fiber to finished basket.
The three things that actually move
Three parts of the chain shift around the holiday, and they shift at different times.
| What moves | When it tightens | What you can do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Weaving capacity | Through January, as weavers finish work in hand and prepare to travel | Confirm designs and quantities early so weaving is booked rather than queued |
| Finishing and drying | With weaving, since a piece is only finished once it is properly dry | Ask how drying is done. Our four warehouses have drying machines, so finishing is less exposed to weather |
| Ocean freight | In the weeks before the holiday, across the whole of Asia | Book space with your forwarder early and agree a cut off date for the container |
That last point is not specific to Vietnam. DHL describes the pattern plainly: shippers rush to move goods before lunar new year factory closures, creating sharp, predictable peaks. Predictable is the useful word there. The peak is not a surprise, so it can be planned for.
How to plan backwards
Start at the end and work left. Take the date the goods must be in your warehouse or on the shelf. Subtract your own customs clearance and inland transport. Subtract the ocean transit for your route. Subtract the inspection window if you use a third party. Then ask us for the production time on the specific designs you want, because a collapsible basket and a multi level pet tree are not the same job.
Whatever that total comes to, it has to land before the last loading week of January 2027. If it does not, you have three honest options: move the in store date, cut the order into a pre Tet shipment and a post Tet one, or change to designs that are already in production. We would rather have that conversation in October than in January. The detail of how we handle minimums, samples and lead times is set out in how we handle minimum orders, samples and lead times.
What to send us now
If your 2027 range is still open, five things let a supplier give you a real answer rather than a cautious one:
- The designs and sizes you want, with inside dimensions where fit matters.
- Your target date in store, and the port you ship to.
- Packaging and label artwork, or a date by which it will exist.
- Whether a third party inspection is required, and at what stage.
- Whether you can accept a split shipment if the full quantity will not clear before the holiday.
New supplier relationships take longer than repeat ones, so if you are still choosing, start now rather than in December. We set out what to ask for and what to look at in how to vet a handicraft supplier in Vietnam. A straightforward first sample, such as a plain seagrass storage basket, tells you more about a supplier than a catalogue does, because you can see the rim, the base and the finishing in your own hands.
A few pieces from across our range
This post is about a date in the calendar rather than one product type, so the selection below is a general one, drawn from four different parts of the range: a storage basket, a rug runner, a lampshade and a set of napkin rings.
Frequently asked questions
When is Tet in 2027?
Tet falls on Saturday 6 February 2027, the first day of the year of the Goat. The date moves each year because it follows the Vietnamese lunisolar calendar, and it usually lands between late January and 20 February.
How long do Vietnamese suppliers close for Tet?
The public holiday is announced by the government for each new year, and many workshops are quiet for longer because people travel home and return gradually. Rather than working from a general figure, ask your supplier for their own production calendar once the official dates are published.
Should I place my order before or after Tet?
If the goods are needed in the first half of 2027, before. If your in store date is later in the year, placing after the holiday is usually comfortable and can mean a calmer sampling process, because the pre holiday rush has passed.
Does Tet affect sample development as well as production?
Yes, and this is the part buyers most often forget. A new design needs sampling, comments and a revised sample before production can start, so a sample sent in late January may not be approved and into production until well after the holiday.
Can I still send an enquiry during the holiday period?
Yes. Send it whenever it is ready. Replies may be slower around the holiday itself, so if your timing is tight, tell us the date you need goods in store and we will confirm our own calendar against it.
Working on a 2027 range?
Send us your designs, your target date in store and the port you ship to. We will come back with a production plan against the Tet calendar, and tell you honestly if the date does not work.
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