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Hong Kong actress Lana Wong (C) is dressed in pig costume while she meets with worshipers at Wong Tai Sin Temple to host the Lunar New Year of the Pig in Hong Kong at the end February 4, 2019. The faithful gathered at the temple to pray for luck and fortune for the New Year. (Philip FONG / AFP)
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(AFP) – Chinese communities around the world have welcomed the Year pig Tuesday, ushering in the Lunar New Year with prayers, family celebrations and shopping trips.
In mainland China last week, hundreds of millions of people stormed trains, buses, cars and planes to join their family and friends during the world's largest annual migration, emptying thus the megacities of the country of a large part of the migrant labor force.
Celebrations will take place around the world, from the Southeast Asiasecular Chinese communities to the newly established Chinatowns of Sydney, London, Vancouver, Los Angeles and beyond.
The most important holiday of the Chinese calendar marks the New Year with a couple of days of festivity while the families together wrap dumplings and exchange gifts and red envelopes stuffed with money.
Pigs symbolize good fortune and wealth in Chinese culture and this yearThe holidays bring a proliferation of merchandise, greetings and pig decorations.
During the spring holiday season – a 40-day period known as "Chunyun" – the Chinese mbades will be on the move, reporting nearly three billion trips, Chinese official media reported.
The busy streets and arteries were unusually empty in Beijing on Monday, with many shops and restaurants closed until next week.
A growing number of Chinese people are also choosing to travel abroad, booking family trips to Thailand, Japan and other destinations of choice.
It's estimated that seven million Chinese tourists will go overseas during the Spring Festival year, according to the Xinhua official news agency, citing figures from the Chinese travel agency Ctrip.
– Prayers and greetings –
In Hong Kong, flower markets were filled with residents picking orchids, mandarins and peach blossoms to decorate their homes – as well as stalls housing a vertiginous selection of pillows, tote bags and patterned soft toys. of pork.
Thousands of petitioners carrying incense, some dressed in pigs' costumes, rushed into the city's famous Wong Tai Sin Temple during the night, a popular place to mark the first prayers of the city. New Year.
On the other side of the border, crowds also invaded Longhua Temple in Shanghai to pray for happiness.
In Malaysia (60% of the population is Muslim and a quarter ethnic Chinese), some shopping centers have chosen not to display decorations to pigs, while some stores have kept them indoors.
But shoppers and shopkeepers said it was usual in a country where the Muslim majority was sensitive to an animal considered impure by Islam and that it was generally not there. had a lot of controversy this year.
In Indonesia, the largest country in the world with a Muslim majority, which also has a large population of Chinese Lunar New Year is a celebrated day.
Events such as traditional lion dances take place in decorated public spaces, while supermarkets cater for moon cakes and tangerines.
In Japan, the famous Tokyo Tower of the capital had to turn red to celebrate the New Year – a first for the city.
It is also the most important holiday in Vietnam, where it is celebrated under the name of Tet.
Parades and lion dances in Western cities such as New York and London were to attract a large crowd.
Respectful people from Beijing, such as Pakistani President Arif Alvi and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen extended New year greetings to China.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen used her social media accounts to present a political soap opera in Beijing with a message highlighting the island's democratic credentials and linguistic pluralism.
"In Taiwan, we are able to maintain our cultural traditions," she said in a video in which she introduced the traditional New year welcome in five Chinese languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, Teochew and Cantonese.
Critics and minorities have long accused the mainland authorities of pushing Mandarin at the expense of other languages.
China still regards Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, although both sides have been governed separately since the end of the civil war in 1949.
Relations between Taipei and Beijing had a difficult start in 2019 after Xi Jinping delivered a bellicose speech last month, calling the "inevitable" unification of the island with the mainland.
© Agence France-Presse
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