“Merry Christmas” in Cantonese: sing3 daan3 faai3 lok6

“Happy New Year”: san1 nin4 faai3 lok6

 

Hong Kong WinterFest for Christmas

Not exactly a Chinese festival — but still the people in Hong Kong do celebrate Christmas. Hong Kong used to be a British Colony and it has adopted many of the British traditions such as celebrating Christmas and New Year. Hong Kong puts on a winter festival after Thanksgiving that is a highlight of the Christmas season.

The buildings along the harbor put on a light show with Christmas and New Year’s decorations. During WinterFest, most of the city is aglow with festive lighting, and Victoria Harbor is a dazzling sight especially when the fireworks burst on New Year’s Eve.

Giant Tiffany Christmas Tree at Hong Kong WinterFest

    Christmas Tree in Hong Kong

 

New Year – Hong Kong Countdown Celebrations

The Hong Kong New Year Countdown is a breathtaking display that brings out the dramatic beauty of Victoria Harbour and the city’s renowned skyline. This year’s Hong Kong New Year Countdown will be the biggest in the event’s history and will, for the first time, have pyrotechnics launched from both sea and land. The show will feature an eight-minute display of pyrotechnics, beginning on the harbour and moving landwards in three layers culminating in a display from various buildings in Wan Chai with the iconic harbour-front Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre as the focal point.

 

Hong Kong Chinese New Year Celebrations

People in Hong Kong also celebrate the tradition Chinese New Year which falls on the first day of the first lunar month.

Shops across town put on sales as both the young and old buy clothes and other goods to make a fresh start to the new lunar year. Meanwhile, the younger generations receive lucky red packets of cash from their elders, homes and businesses spring clean and paste red banners on their doors as blessings, shoppers stock up on auspicious foods, temples fill with prayers of fortune and clouds of incense, and almost every soul in town becomes consumed by one goal – to get home for a family meal on the festival’s eve.

Visitors can impress locals around this time by learning to say the traditional festival greeting, “kung hei fat choy,” which loosely translates as “congratulations and be prosperous.”

The ancient Chinese once welcomed the new lunar year by scaring away evil spirits with firecrackers, but that’s no longer feasible in such a densely packed city. However, Hong Kong makes up for it by putting on a stunning parade and pyrotechnic show on a scale that would send even the most brazen of demons scampering away with its ghoulish tail between its legs.

 Lucy Luo, Trainer of Cantonese Language at Sydney Language Solutions