What is the day on the second Sunday after Mother’s Day each year? It is the Family Day, a celebration day for the whole family proposed by FAMILY Project. Following the success last year, Family Day 2017 was organised as a series of large-scale territory-wide celebrations and shopping offers, inviting all citizens to celebrate this festival together.

The Family Day 2017 was kicked start by the Survey on Hong Kong People Celebrating Family Day Press Conference cum Family Day 2017 Kick-off Ceremony. A series of celebration events for Family Day 2017 was unveiled at the kick-off ceremony. There were three main themes, namely Shopping Fun, Express Your Love to Family, and Fun Fair.

Shopping Fun to increase quality family time

Family Day Shopping Fun was organised with an aim to encourage people to shop and dine together, so as to spend more quality time with family members. The offers cover categories including “Shopping”, “Dinning” and “Entertainment”. The commercial sector has rendered strong support to Shopping Fun. Over 250 brands, with more than 1,500 retail outlets and restaurants, have provided various kinds of offers. The public can enjoy the special offers through 50,000 copies of free and nicely designed Family Day Shopping Guidebook (distributed via magazine inserts and roadshow activities across Hong Kong), and online coupons at Family Day website and Facebook page.

Express Your Love to Family by writing postcards

Express Your Love to Family was a series of roadshow activities to reach the community, with a promotion truck touring around different districts across Hong Kong. The public was encouraged to express gratitude and love to their families by writing free 3Hs postcards provided and collected at the promotion truck. Furthermore, the public was also invited to enter the Online Family Photo Competition, allowing them to take more family photos to capture the loving moments with family members.

Fun Fair for all ages

Fun Fair was held on the day of Family Day (28 May this year). The event offered a number of activities for family members of different generations to enjoy together. The main focus of the event was the breaking of a world record by using postcards collected from citizens at the roadshow activities earlier. In total, 13,706 postcards with meaningful messages were placed one by one to form a line, and this successfully set the new Guinness World Record for the world’s “longest line of postcards”!

Other wonderful activities at the Fun Fair included “Zero Time Exercise classroom”, activity booths themed on healthy diet, and positive family communication. Also, flash mob musical and clown performances were staged to give surprises to both children and adults. All the postcards were mailed to the participants’ families afterwards.

The responses from the public towards Family Day 2017 were overwhelming and encouraging. And it is strongly supported by the commercial, academic, social service, health and other sectors. It is hoped that the public will celebrate Family Day in the same way as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in the future, so as to promote healthier, happier and more harmonious families.

At Family Day 2017 Fun Fair, FAMILY Project successfully achieved the Guinness World Record for the “longest line of postcards” by using over 13,000 postcards.

(From left) Professor Lam Tai Hing, BBS, JP, Principal Investigator of FAMILY Project; Ms. Imelda Chan, The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Head of Charities (Grant Making – Elderly, Rehabilitation, Medical, Environment and Family); Professor Sophia Chan Siu Chee, JP, then Under Secretary and now Secretary for Food and Health; and Mr. Chua Hoi Wai, Chief Executive, The Hong Kong Council of Social Service, officiated at kick-off ceremony of Family Day Fun Fair.

Thematic activity booths delivered messages on Zero Time Exercise, healthy diet, and positive family communication.

Flash mob musical and clown performances were popular among the participants.

Fun Fair was well received by the public with over 3,000 participants.

Express Your Love to Family promotion truck toured around different districts across Hong Kong to collect postcards from the public.

Online Family Photo Competition was held to remind people to take more family photos.

Family Day labels indicate shops and restaurants with special offers for the festival.

50,000 printed copies of Family Day Shopping Guidebook were distributed to the public for free.

Survey on Hong Kong People Celebrating Family Day Press Conference cum Family Day 2017 Kick-off Ceremony