China

Happy Father's Day! But Cup first

(chinanews.cn)
Updated: 2006-06-20 11:19

Father’s Day came during 2006 World Cup. Chinese merchants decided to grasp the business opportunities created by World Cup, and Father’s Day seemed to have been ignored. Fathers were left out in the cold in their own festival.

Children present footballs as gifts to their fathers. They wrote "Happay Father's Day" on these footballs.[chinanews.cn]

“Sunday is Father’s Day? Why shopping malls don’t make related advertisements?” Our reporter made some random investigations among some passers-by in Shanghai, and astonishingly, none of them knew Father’s Day.

Currently many people get used to celebrating festivals with shopping malls together. But when Father’s Day came, malls and bazaars suddenly kept silent. The busy white-collar people easily forgot this festival when they were still unfamiliar with it.

In China, almost all the shopping malls, bars and restaurants, supermarkets, etc hope to make a fortune during the World Cup, and thus they all aim at it. Thus, few launched some activities for Father’s Day like offering free gifts to customers.

Experts thought a main reason why Father’s Day is not a hot festival in China is that few people know about it.

In Chinese traditional views, fathers celebrating their own festival is bizarre. But experts also said, World Cup was men’s festival, and most fathers were football fans. Father’s Day should not be ignored during the World Cup, and more profits should be gained if people could link World Cup and Father’s Day together.