As millions of people celebrated the Lunar New Year worldwide, firecrackers went off, incense was offered at temples, and drummers and dancers paraded Wednesday throughout Asia and beyond.
The Spring Festival in China, Tet in Vietnam, and Seollal in Korea are prominent festivals observed in numerous countries, ranging from Beijing to Havana. The Year of the Snake, one of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac, began on Wednesday.
On a beautiful but chilly day, throngs of people wearing down jackets crowded a park in Beijing for a temple festival. While others ate traditional foods from food stalls and posed for pictures with someone dressed as the God of Wealth, others rang bells and threw cash into containers shaped like gold bars for good luck.
During the Lunar New Year, people wish themselves and others luck and prosperity in the upcoming year.
According to Jiang Hecang, a resident of Beijing, “I had to take care of both my kid and my work, so the past year was really busy for me.” I hope my child grows up healthy and that my job stays steady during the Year of the Snake. Then I’ll be content enough.
In Malaysia, the new year was celebrated with firecrackers outside the Guan Di temple in Kuala Lumpur, the country’s capital, and lion dances to the rhythm of drums and small cymbals.
The smoke rose from the burning tips of the incense sticks as ethnic Chinese held them in front of them and bowed repeatedly within the temple before placing the incense into ornate pots of gold.
To be among the first to light incense sticks in the stands in front of the temple’s main hall at 11 p.m. on the eve of the Lunar New Year, hundreds of people waited in line at the Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong.
I pray for the blessings of my family. I’m hoping for a successful business. I hope for peace and pray for my nation. Ming So, who goes to the temple every year for the late-night ceremony, expressed her optimism that this year will be better.
During the eight-day national vacation, many Chinese who work in larger cities return home, in what is referred to as the largest yearly human migration in history. Beijing, the capital of China, becomes somewhat of a ghost town as a result of the migration, with many stores shuttered and the normally busy highways and subways deserted.
On New Year’s Eve, Chinese people typically eat a family dinner at home. Many people go to temples to worship during the Lunar New Year, and many often go to temple fairs to see performances and purchase toys, snacks, and other items.
At a temple fair in Ditan Park, the site of the old Temple of Earth during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing resident Wang Xinxin stated, “I bring my children here to experience the atmosphere, because the New Year atmosphere… is fading.”
“We can still see some elements of what New Year was like in Beijing before,” Wang said, adding that children like mine don’t really understand it.
Non-official festivities have been restricted by the government, and big cities have banned the loud firecrackers that used to echo throughout Beijing and cover some blocks in smoke.
A lot of Chinese people travel both domestically and overseas during the lengthy holiday. Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the United States, South Korea, Macao, and Vietnam are this year’s top international travel destinations, according to Ctrip, an internet booking company that runs Trip.com.
The 10-day Lunar New Year holiday began Tuesday night in Moscow, where Russians applauded, waved, and snapped smartphone pictures of drummers, costumed dancers, and long snake and dragon figurines carried high in a colorful parade.
Since 2022, the governments of China and Russia have strengthened their connections, partly in opposition to what they perceive to be American hegemony over the global order.
In addition to expressing their joy at being able to enjoy Chinese cuisine and culture in Moscow, including folk performances and booths offering snacks and artwork, visitors yelled Happy New Year in Russian.
A parade of dragons and glowing lanterns made its way through Chinatown’s winding lanes on Tuesday night as part of Cuba’s small Chinese community’s Lunar New Year celebrations.
One of the biggest and oldest Chinese populations in the Americas used to reside on the island. Today, a much smaller community mixes traditional Chinese food with rum and cigars to celebrate significant holidays in a Cuban way.
— The Associated Press’s Ken Moritsugu
This report was contributed to by Wayne Zhang, Alice Fung, Syawalludin Zain, Milexsy Dur n, and Ariel Fernandez.
