Lunar New Year fairs start Thursday

The 2025 Lunar New Year fairs will be held at 15 locations for seven days from January 23 (Thursday) to 7 am on January 29, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced on Friday.

About 1,500 wet goods, dry goods and fast food stalls will be set up to enable the public to buy festive plants and flowers, LNY food, decorations and spring couplets (fai chun) to welcome the LNY.

The department reminded licensees that the stalls are solely for the purpose of selling and promoting the sale of the permitted commodities, and no other activities are allowed in the licensed area.

“If the FEHD considers that any activity conducted by the licensee to publicize, promote, display, show, offer or sell any permitted commodities in the venue is unlawful, contrary to the interest of national security, or being immoral or incompatible with the object of the LNY fair, the FEHD is entitled to direct the licensee to stop conducting such activity and the licensee must immediately comply with such direction, or the FEHD will terminate the license agreement and reclaim the stall,” it said.

Meanwhile, the department said venues of the LNY fairs will be monitored using innovational and technological measures, and crowd control will be implemented as necessary. The footfall of the 15 LNY fairs will be displayed in a 'green, amber and red lights' format on the department’s website to let the public know about the crowd conditions at the fairs.

Various waste reduction and recycling measures will also be adopted this year., with the department arranging for contractors to collect bamboo sticks, wooden pallets, polyfoam, and wilted or unsold flowers with reusable value.