Chinese across Asia celebrate Year of the Ram

With fireworks, prayers and lion dances, millions across Asia on Saturday welcomed in the Lunar New Year – the biggest holiday for Chinese communities worldwide.

Millions of people thronged train and bus stations and airports in China as they travelled to their hometowns for the holiday, leaving city streets quiet.

The mainland Chinese government estimates the nation’s trains, planes, buses and other transport will handle 1.8 billion trips during the holiday period - perhaps the planet’s largest mass movement of people at any one time.

In Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian ushered in the Year of the Ram, as it is known in the Chinese zodiac, by handing out 15,000 red envelopes – each stuffed with 200 New Taiwan dollars (£3.80) – to people in his hometown. With every envelope, Chen wished the residents of Kuantien a happy new year.

Red envelopes, or “hong bao” in Mandarin, were being doled out in Chinese communities all over Asia in hopes of bringing good luck. Other traditional ways of observing the new year include temple visits, family gatherings, lion and dragon dances, and fireworks.

Near midnight, Shanghai residents set off firecrackers and fireworks. Ear-splitting noise lasted for one hour, leaving behind scraps of red firecracker paper.

Afterward, Buddhist temples in the city were filled with worshippers. People lined up in temples for a chance to clang on big iron bells to guarantee good luck in the new year.

Soothsayers say the Year of the Ram – sometimes translated as Year of the Goat - often brings discord and strife.

But leaders in Asia delivered messages of hope for the coming year. Hong Kong’s top leader, Tung Chee-hwa, urged his people not to “lose heart” after a year that saw record unemployment.

Although Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tung warned ”an imminent war in Iraq” would hurt an already uncertain global economy, he also asked Singaporeans to rise up to the challenges the island-state might face.

“In the year of the Goat, we must try to be like the mountain goat, sure-footed and hardy and able to move safely in a rocky environment,” he said.

Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia also celebrated the Lunar New Year.

In Indonesia, the day was celebrated as an official holiday for the first time in the country’s history. Despite heavy rain storms, ethnic Chinese packed temples throughout Jakarta.

Former dictator Suharto outlawed the holiday along with the teaching of Confucianist beliefs after a military takeover in 1966. Since Suharto was ousted in 1998, the Chinese have enjoyed greater freedom to express their culture and beliefs.