The Education Bureau’s clarification on Thursday followed a letter it sent last week asking schools to mourn the victims of the fire, which has now claimed 159 lives, and suspended festive celebratory activities from November 29 to December 1.
One social media platform was flooded with messages from students who said they found it unnecessary to suspend all school activities as they had spent a lot of time preparing and had been looking forward to the annual events.
“Why [do we] have to cancel the Christmas parties? [We] prepare for a long time. Of course I know the fire in Tai Po is serious, but could it not cancel our Christmas party?” a user named “fsj_0502” wrote in Threads, with tens of thousands of internet users echoing that view and retweeting the post.
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Some said that they also had their Christmas parties cancelled, and what disappointed them the most was that it was their last year at the school.
“This is our last Christmas in our school. Now it has to be cancelled. Actually we prayed and we donated our money, we do what we can all do. I do not understand why they do this to us,” a user named “zokawen” wrote.