Asians celebrate the "Year of the Snake"

"Year of the Snake"

Over a billion Asians celebrate the "Year of the Snake"

Starting Wednesday, more than a billion people in Asia are celebrating the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Snake, an event marked by a variety of rituals from Beijing to Bangkok.

The Chinese enjoy an eight-day holiday, during which they gather around a banquet, attend traditional performances, or set off firecrackers and fireworks to ward off evil spirits.

Streets, shopping malls, and homes were adorned with festive red decorations, symbolizing happiness and prosperity, in parts of East and Southeast Asia, including South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand.

In Vietnam, families gathered to remember their departed ancestors with traditional banana offerings, although some were forced to seek alternatives due to rising prices.

In Taiwan, people of all ages flocked to temples to pray and make offerings of fruit, biscuits, and nuts.

In Bangkok, crowds of locals and tourists flocked to Wat Mangkhon Kamalawat, the Thai capital's most prominent Chinese Buddhist temple.

In the Philippine and Indonesian capitals of Manila and Jakarta, crowds also took to the streets to watch lion dance performances.

The holidays also provide an opportunity for parents or grandparents to distribute money to their unmarried children. These gifts are usually placed in "red envelopes," but thanks to modern technology, they can also be transferred directly via smartphones.

In the 40 days before, during, and after the holidays, China is expected to make approximately nine billion trips between regions on various modes of transport, according to state media. Train stations and airports across China have been crowded in recent days as hundreds of millions of people returned home to spend the holidays with their loved ones.

In Beijing, residents braved the cold, with temperatures dropping to minus 10 degrees Celsius, and headed to parks and temples to bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon with prayers and dance performances. China's Ministry of Transport reported that it expects 510 million train trips and 90 million plane trips during this period.

In South Korea, snowfall this week disrupted train, plane, and bus services, which were in high demand.

Seeings published by South Korean media showed snow-covered vehicles stranded on major roads across the country.

The operator of Incheon International Airport, Seoul's largest airport, reported that approximately 2.14 million passengers, an average of about 214,000 per day, are expected to use international flights between January 24 and February 2.

It added, "This is expected to be the highest average daily passenger number during the Lunar New Year holiday since the airport opened" in 2001.