Fireworks and prayers greet Chinese Year of the Tiger

FROM Sydney to Pyongyang, fireworks, lion dances and prayers for good fortune ushered in the Year of the Tiger yesterday as a cold snap across China failed to dampen celebrations.

Fireworks lit up the skies over Beijing’s Forbidden City, Shanghai’s riverfront Bund and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City while in Sydney a traditional lion dance captivated thousands of onlookers. Snow covered rooftops in China’s biggest city, Shanghai, as a cold front swept over the country at the start of the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, the nation’s most important holiday.

Despite rain and near freezing temperatures, the queue at Jing’An Temple, one of Shanghai’s oldest, stretched around the block as people burned incense and prayed for wealth, health and happiness.

Firecrackers echoed throughout Shanghai and Beijing as families sought to ward off evil spirits and attract the god of fortune.

In Taiwan, the faithful gathered at midnight at temples across the island. President Ma Ying-jeou visited the famed Dharma Drum Mountain temple in northern Taiwan to pray for “social harmony and cross-Strait peace and prosperity” – reiterating his hopes of ending tension with mainland China.

Despite rainy skies and fog enveloping Hong Kong, an annual Chinese new year parade featuring elaborate floats and musical performances was due to go ahead.

In Sydney, which claims to have the largest lunar New Year event outside Asia with a 17-day festival, six couples from Beijing and Shanghai marked both the New Year and Valentine’s day by climbing the Harbour Bridge at dawn.

Babies born in the Year of the Tiger are believed to be independent and strong, but superstition also holds it is a bad year for marriages and for those who do tie the knot, the husband may die before the wife.