{"id":890051,"date":"2026-02-04T02:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/hong-kong-ushers-in-2026-with-quiet-reflection-following-tragic-fire-foregoing-traditional-fireworks-display\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T02:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:24:16","slug":"hong-kong-ushers-in-2026-with-quiet-reflection-following-tragic-fire-foregoing-traditional-fireworks-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/hong-kong-ushers-in-2026-with-quiet-reflection-following-tragic-fire-foregoing-traditional-fireworks-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Ushers in 2026 with Quiet Reflection Following Tragic Fire, Foregoing Traditional Fireworks Display"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

HONG KONG \u2014 In a departure from tradition, Hong Kong will welcome 2026 without the usual grand fireworks display over Victoria Harbor, a customary highlight of the New Year festivities.<\/p>\n

This change comes in the aftermath of a devastating fire in November that claimed the lives of at least 161 people, prompting a shift in the celebration\u2019s format.<\/p>\n

Instead of fireworks, the city\u2019s tourism board has organized a music show set for Wednesday night. The event will feature performances by the soft rock duo Air Supply, along with other artists, in Central, the bustling business district known for its popular nightlife area, Lan Kwai Fong.<\/p>\n

Adding to the evening\u2019s spectacle, the facades of eight notable landmarks will transform into massive countdown clocks, culminating in a captivating three-minute light show as the clock strikes midnight.<\/p>\n

Fireworks have traditionally been a staple of Hong Kong\u2019s celebrations, marking occasions such as the New Year, Lunar New Year, and National Day.<\/p>\n

The pyrotechnic displays against Hong Kong\u2019s world-famous skyline of skyscrapers typically draw hundreds of thousands of people, including many tourists, to both sides of the promenade.<\/p>\n

Hotels and restaurants likely affected<\/h2>\n

Rosanna Law, the territory\u2019s secretary for culture, sports, and tourism, acknowledged Tuesday that having no fireworks would affect some hotel and restaurant businesses.<\/p>\n

Annie Wang, a tourist from Shanghai, said that although she had planned to watch the fireworks show, she understood the city\u2019s decision because she found news of the blaze heart-wrenching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite regretful. But there\u2019s no way around it after the fire,\u201d said Wang, a university student.<\/p>\n

Wang Miao, a teacher from the neighboring economic hub of Guangzhou, planned to join the official countdown activities in Central despite the absence of fireworks. <\/p>\n

She said it was a pity that she could not see pyrotechnics, but she could understand why.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t affect our experience in Hong Kong,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n

By early Wednesday evening, crowds of revelers had already gathered near the performance stage in Central, hoping to secure the best views of the musical performance.<\/p>\n

Worst fire since the 1940s for Hong Kong<\/h2>\n

The financial hub\u2019s worst blaze since 1948 broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, in late November. <\/p>\n

The apartment complex was undergoing a monthslong renovation project with buildings covered by\u00a0bamboo scaffolding\u00a0and green netting.<\/p>\n

Authorities have\u00a0pointed to the substandard netting\u00a0and foam boards installed on windows as contributing factors in the fire\u2019s rapid spread. <\/p>\n

Thousands of affected residents have moved to transitional homes, hotels, and youth hostels, struggling to recover from the loss of lives and homes that took them years to buy. <\/p>\n

The casualties\u00a0pained many residents\u00a0across the city.<\/p>\n

Past tragedies in Hong Kong have forced similar cancellations of fireworks. <\/p>\n

They include the 2013 National Day festivities following a vessel collision that killed 39 people on Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2018 Lunar New Year celebration after a bus crash that left 19 dead.<\/p>\n

During the 2019 anti-government protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple displays were also scrapped.<\/p>\n

The origin of fireworks is believed to date to China in the second century B.C., when someone discovered bamboo stalks exploded with loud bangs when thrown into fire, creating the first natural \u201cfirecrackers,\u201d according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a U.S. trade group.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Guinness World Records\u00a0organization says the first accurately documented firework, the Chinese firecracker, was created by Li Tian, a monk from China\u2019s Tang dynasty, dating to around 618 to 907 C.E.<\/p>\n

Li discovered that putting gunpowder in enclosed hollow bamboo stems created loud explosions and bound crackers together to create the traditional New Year firecrackers to drive out evil spirits, Guinness said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG \u2014 In a departure from tradition, Hong Kong will welcome 2026 without the usual grand fireworks display over Victoria Harbor, a customary highlight of the New Year festivities. This change comes in the aftermath of a devastating fire in November that claimed the lives of at least 161 people, prompting a shift in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":890052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2874,28406],"tags":[14982,132722],"class_list":{"0":"post-890051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-quiet","8":"category-ushers","9":"tag-quiet","10":"tag-ushers"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}