SIBU: The opening of a Chinese New Year (CNY) bazaar at Jalan Blacksmith here has put people in the festive mood.
A 100-metre road built in the 1960s is now decorated with bright red lanterns and the bazaar is open from morning to night until Jan 22.
Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting, who performed the lantern lighting ceremony on Thursday night, said his idea of turning the street into a CNY bazaar was met with positive response from the Sibu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI).
“I was thinking that during Chinese New Year and other festivals like Hari Raya and Gawai, we will close one street to let people have a feel of the festive mood,” he said.
Ting said that the SCCCI Youth Entrepreneur took up the challenge to set up the bazaar — all SMC had to do was to provide them with a venue.
“If business here is good, we will have a similar bazaar next year. We hope a lot of people will come here and join in on the festive mood,” he said.
President of the committee Sean Hii, said it took them two months to finally make the bazaar a reality.
“Although it was a challenge to set up the bazaar, we took up the task as we want to help the mayor in brightening up the town,” said Hii.
He said they had to engage a decoration expert from Kuala Lumpur to help decorate the bazaar.
A councillor, Andy Ting said there would be nightly entertainment programmes on the mini-stage at the bazaar to attract people.
“With this bazaar, we hope people would come to the town during night time which is normally deserted,” he said.
