The day before I left HK, I visited a Chinese new year fair. I was looking for small trinkets to buy as souvenirs, but instead I ended up in the biggest flower market I have ever seen.
It was near the Sogo Department in Causeway Bay, so right in the middle of the city. The market took up such a huge space, but it probably had half the population of HK there.
Apparently for the Chinese, decorating houses with flowers is a new year tradition among other things such as cleaning up the house head to toe and eating with family, as it symbolizes the arrival of spring and represents new beginnings.
The most beautiful were the orchids. Plum branches also seemed popular. They also sold mini trees of small golden citruses, which my friend told me that in Chinese, sound like money thus would bring good business for the year (very Chinese).
Chinese new year is followed by most Asian countries except for Japan. Wikipedia says Japan followed until 1873 or 5 years after modernization (Meiji Restoration). I assume it was confusing that along with counting emperor years (this year is Heisei Year 22) and starting to follow the Georgian calendar with Westernization, it was too much.
It must have been weird switching to Georgian back then, as people must have related the beginning of a new year with the coming of a new spring - celebrating I am sure with plum blossoms, the first of the series of pink flowers that bloom gorgeously in the spring time (followed by peach flowers in March and cherry blossoms in April).
Happy Chinese new year!
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