Flag Day

Flag Day is a unique Hong Kong tradition. On a Flag Day, typically a Saturday, thousands of mostly young people go on the streets to sell flags to raise funds for charities. Actually they put little stickers on people who made donations, typically some small change. On this past Saturday my second daughter went to sell flags for the first time, with my youngest daughter and I tagging along. It was a hot day at 32 degrees. But we all had a good time, and making some interesting observations at the same time.

Many people came to us to buy flags without being asked, since most HK people are quite familiar with this tradition and many want to help. At the same time, there are more people who deliberately avoided us.

We tried to approach people who were not walking too fast, have at least one free hand, and did not look unhappy. Roughly half of those we approached bought flags. Some said they do not have change; we would give them a flag anyway, hoping that they would make a donation next time. It seemed to me we had more female donors than males; but perhaps it was because we were close to the wet market.

I thought parents would like to set good examples for their children; so I was quite surprised that many parents with accompanying children actually declined to give. Apparently this rather counter-intuitive observation is quite well-known in the flag-selling community.

All in all, it was Saturday morning well spent.