Air pollution snuffs out Lantern Festival fun
Print Edition
MOST Lantern Festival firework displays planned for last night fizzled out like a damp squib as authorities across the country banned the events due to heavy smog.
Tradition has it that any fireworks left over from Spring Festival celebrations are set off during the Lantern Festival as a way to bid farewell to the Lunar New Year holiday.
But bad air quality put paid to the fun for most people.
Heavy smog began to envelope Beijing from yesterday morning with the air quality index at stations in urban areas reaching Level 5, or heavily polluted. The city’s weather department advised people not to set off fireworks during Lantern Festival, which is the last occasion on which they can be used legally.
In Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi province, the use of fireworks was restricted to just a few villages, and banned altogether for government departments, social groups and private firms.
Shop owners often choose the auspicious day to launch their businesses, an event marked by the lighting of firecrackers and fireworks. But a street cleaner in the eastern Nanchang City said he had far less debris to sweep up this year than in the past.
The boss of a fireworks distributor in Jiangxi Province said his sales were down 40 percent this year.
Experts say although fireworks are not a main cause of smog and haze, they can aggravate air pollution.
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