Lunar New Year Fair (年宵市場, or flowermarket 花市) is a type of fair held annually a few days before Lunar New Year in markets, China.
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In Hong Kong, the fair is held in various location in Hong Kong, notably Victoria Park and Fa Hui Park. Fair gathers hundreds of stalls for various goods. Half of the area is for selling auspicious flowering plants like narcissus, peony, chrysanthemum, peach and fruit plants like mandarin. Another half is for selling dry stuff for Chinese New Year.
The fair draws lots of people to visit. It is part of custom, hang nin siu (行年宵, literally: walk the year night) or hang fa shi (行花市, literally: walk the flower market). The crowd peaks at a few hours before and after midnight of the New Year's Day. The stall tenders would try to sell all their stocks in these few hours before the fair closes. Flower stall tenders would not take the flowers back when the fair closes but destroy it or leave it to charity organisations.
In 2000s increasingly youths from various youth organisations, secondary schools and universities operate stalls their own.
In 2007, students from various schools set up stalls to sell many special products which are related to pig, for example Pig Tissue Holder, Fatty Pork Chop Scarf, etc.
In tradition, the Governor of Hong Kong visited the fair annually, usually in Victoria Park. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong continues this tradition.
At the time of 2006, it was held in:
At the time of 2007, it was held in[1]:
In Guangzhou (Canton), there is at least one fair in each district, which became an accustom since 1960s. However, the origin of such fair can be traced back to Ming Dynasty. However, the official records of the Lunar New Year Fairs in Canton was found first in 1920s, during the city was under the rule of the Republic of China.
And the official name for the fair in Canton is flowermarket (花市), however the locals tend to use the term Flower Street (花街), referring to the fact the fairs in Canton are taking part on the street available for vehicles on normal days, which turned to pedestrian zone only during the days of the fair. [2]