SAN FRANCISCO — One of Chinatown’s more unusual annual traditions returns Saturday with incense, offerings, fortune sticks and a straw dragon packed with thousands of burning incense sticks.
The Lotus Tao Culture Association lists the 2026 Hungry Ghost Festival for Saturday, Sept. 5, on Grant Avenue between California and Sacramento streets. Its current calendar gives a 2 p.m. start and describes the event as free and open to the public.
The timing deserves a little explanation. The daytime program starts in the afternoon, but Lotus Tao says the festival’s straw dragon contains 10,000 sticks of incense and comes alive after dark. If the dragon is the part you most want to see, do not treat 2 p.m. as the only important time of day.
What is the Hungry Ghost Festival?
The Hungry Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival, is a traditional Chinese observance associated with the seventh lunar month. Lotus Tao describes it as a period when the boundary between the living and the dead is believed to become especially permeable.
Offerings of food and incense, along with ritual ceremonies, honor ancestors and other wandering spirits. For visitors, the event can look like a colorful Chinatown street festival. For many participants, though, the rituals carry religious and family meaning as well.
What will be on Grant Avenue?
The organizer’s current listing mentions peace buns, incense and fortune sticks, along with the straw incense dragon. Lotus Tao has also held Taoist ceremonies around the Hungry Ghost season intended to honor ancestors and release wandering spirits.
Visitors do not need to understand every ritual before attending, but it is worth remembering that some parts of the event are observances rather than performances staged only for spectators.
When should you arrive?
For the daytime activities, 2 p.m. is the clearest official start time currently published. Anyone specifically coming for the illuminated incense dragon should expect to stay later.
The organizer says the dragon comes alive after dark but has not published an exact lighting time for 2026. That is more useful than forcing an unofficial time into your plans: arrive for the afternoon if you want the full festival, and stay into the evening if the dragon is your priority.
Where exactly is the festival?
The event is on Grant Avenue between California and Sacramento streets, in the heart of Chinatown.
SF News Today has not yet found a published 2026 SFMTA traffic order spelling out every nearby street restriction for Saturday. We’ll update this page if the city’s Labor Day weekend traffic advisory adds closure or Muni details.
Chinatown has another major event Sunday
Saturday is only the first of two notable Chinatown street events this weekend. On Sunday, the Chinatown Car Show and Car Parade is scheduled along a longer stretch of Grant Avenue, with a parade beginning at 3 p.m.
That means residents, merchants and visitors should expect Chinatown to be busier than a normal weekend on both Saturday and Sunday.