BEIJING: Hundreds of millions of people across Asia celebrate the Lunar New Year with their families on Wednesday (Jan 29), as they bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon and usher in the Year of the Snake.
The Chinese enjoy eight consecutive public holidays for the 2025 Spring Festival, an opportunity to share meals, attend traditional performances, and set off firecrackers and 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.
And high streets, shopping malls, offices and homes are bedecked in festive red banners – believed to ward off evil – throughout many parts of East and South-East Asia, including South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.
In Taiwan on the morning of Jan 29, people of all ages thronged temples across the island to make offerings of fruit, sweets, crackers and nuts, and mediate and pray.
“Our tradition is to visit the temple and pray, for better fortune for this year,” said Ms Chen Ching-yuan, 36, as she visited Longshan Temple in Taipei with her mother.
“There’s no need to ask for anything specific, just wish for a smooth, peaceful, safe, and healthy year, and pray that everything goes well,” she told AFP.
Lin Yu-soon, 73, said visiting Longshan Temple with his family “gives us a sense of spiritual solace as we pray”.
Some temple-goers ushered in the new year by racing to be the first to release incense in the pursuit of good fortune.
“I didn’t want to look back with regret when I’m old, so I decided to go for it,” Kao Meng-shun said, after winning the event at Fusing Temple in Yunlin County, in the central-west of Taiwan.
“While I’m still young and have the energy, it’s the perfect time to take action and make the most of it.”
During the traditional 40-day period that runs before, during and after the Chinese New Year holidays in mainland China, about nine billion interprovincial passenger trips on all forms of transport are expected to be made.
Train and air travel are expected to “hit record highs” during 2025’s migration, state news agency Xinhua said.
In South Korea, heavy snowfall caused disruption to train, plane and bus schedules nationwide, as people went to visit their families in the countryside this week.
Passengers were seen at Seoul’s main train station carrying gifts wrapped in colourful cloth and luggage as they prepared to leave the capital.
Images released by local media showed vehicles covered in snow stuck on South Korea’s major highways as heavy winds and snowfall persisted.
The traffic authorities warned it could take more than seven hours on Jan 28 to drive from Seoul to the country’s port city of Busan, a journey that typically takes around four hours.
Many others opted to spend the break abroad. The operator of Incheon International Airport announced that more than 2.1 million passengers were expected to use the airport to travel overseas from Jan 24 to Feb 2.
“This is projected to be the highest average daily passenger count during the Lunar New Year holiday since the airport opened (in 2001),” the operator said in a statement.
The festivities even extended to space, with Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze sending New Year’s Eve greetings from the Tiangong space station on Jan 28.
In a video released by the China Manned Space Agency, the trio could be seen dressed in blue jumpsuits with traditional red cloud patterns, holding two pieces of paper-cutting featuring the Chinese character “fu”, for good luck.
“In the new year, may all your dreams come true,” Wang said, forming a heart shape above her head. - AFP
