From incense offerings and vibrant lion dances in Beijing to prayer rituals at temples in Bangkok and Taipei, hundreds of millions of people across Asia celebrated the Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Snake. In China, people enjoy eight consecutive public holidays for the Spring Festival, an opportunity to share meals, attend traditional performances and set off fireworks.
Train stations and airports across the country have been jam-packed for weeks as millions returned home to spend the holidays with their loved ones in an annual migration that is expected to be a record. Temples and parks in the Chinese capital on Wednesday were full of people braving freezing temperatures to bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon with dancing and prayers.
A dragon puppet passing through a crowd on a street on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Snake at Chinatown in Manila. High streets, shopping malls, offices and homes were bedecked in festive red banners โ believed to ward off evil โ throughout many parts of East and South-East Asia, including South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. The normally bustling streets of major cities in Vietnam were almost empty as families for their ancestors and gathered for traditional dishes and drinks.
But after the price of bananas, a traditional offering to forebears, rocketed following the massive destruction of farmland by Typhoon Yagi last year, some families have been forced to look for alternatives. In Taiwan on Wednesday morning, people of all ages poured into temples to make offerings of their own, including fruit, sweets, crackers and nuts.
Some temple-goers ushered in the new year by racing to be the first to light incense in the pursuit of good fortune. A man burning incense as he prays at a shrine in Bangkok. Built in by immigrants from southern China, the temple remains a key worshipping site for the Thai-Chinese community. Crowds also filled the streets in the Philippine and Indonesian capitals for vibrant lion dance parades. During the traditional day period that runs before, during and after the Lunar New Year holidays in China, about nine billion interprovincial passenger trips on all forms of transport are expected to be made.
