Last month, just in time for Christmas, I wrote a piece about the elaborate, colorful building illuminations that decorate dozens of skyscrapers in Hong Kong this time of year.
The Lunar New Year – the highlight of the Chinese calendar – falls a few weeks after Christmas, so the lights usually start going up in the runup to Christmas, in late November, and stay up well into February.
Along the way, sometime in early January, they subtly change to adapt to the season.
Santa Clauses morph into Chinese money gods, snowflakes and stars change into symbols of fortune and happiness, and Chinese characters wishing good luck and wealth for the coming year replace the “Merry Christmas” wishes that were up in December.
The start of the Year of the Snake on Feb. 10 is now just weeks away, and so the changeover has now been completed on most of the city’s buildings. A few readers have asked me to explain – so here’s an update, with pictures. Can you spot the difference?
IHT Rendezvous: Hong Kong Holiday Makeover, in Lights
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IHT Rendezvous: Hong Kong Holiday Makeover, in Lights
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IHT Rendezvous: Hong Kong Holiday Makeover, in Lights
