Family reunions, festive meals and last-minute shopping as Hongkongers usher in Year of the Pig
- Citizens celebrate at Lunar New Year fairs and with religious rites at temples
- Carrie Lam wishes everyone a healthy and prosperous year as the city experiences the warmest Spring Festival season in 66 years
Hongkongers rang in the Lunar New Year on Monday night with festivities across the city and family reunions to welcome the Year of the Pig.
In a Lunar New Year tradition, worshippers at Wong Tai Sin temple in Kowloon rushed to burn the first incense to the Taoist deity, the Great Immortal Wong.
As ever, former actress Lana Wong Ha-wai, 88 – donning a plastic pig snout and ears in accordance with this year’s zodiac animal – was among the first in line.
The celebrations were marked by some unseasonable weather. Temperatures across most parts of Hong Kong rose on Monday to 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) or above, making it the balmiest at this time of the year since 1953, while the Observatory noted that a much warmer than usual January, with a maximum mean temperature of 20.4 degrees, was the fifth warmest on record for the month.
In an unusual move, Lam delivered her new year message through a one-minute clip filmed at a local dried seafood store and flower shops in Sheung Wan.
