Mark Schiefelbein / AP
A performer dressed as an emperor, center, participates in a Qing Dynasty ceremony in which emperors prayed for good harvest and fortune at a temple fair in Ditan Park in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Chinese people are celebrating the first day of the Lunar New Year on Tuesday, the Year of the Pig on the Chinese zodiac.
Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019 | 12:05 a.m.
BEIJING — Asia welcomed the lunar Year of the Pig on Tuesday with visits to temples, family banquets and the world's biggest travel spree.
Celebrations took place throughout the region, from Beijing and Seoul to Hanoi and Singapore.
The streets of Beijing and other major Chinese cities were quiet and empty after millions of people left to visit relatives or travel abroad during the year's biggest family holiday.
Families gathered at home for multigenerational banquets. Companies, shops and government offices closed for official holidays that ranged from two days in South Korea to a week in China.
___
Worshippers stood in line for hours at Hong Kong's Wong Tai Sin Temple to welcome the new year by lighting incense.
Lana Wong, a prominent Hong Kong actress, wore a pig costume for the event.
"My first wish is for world peace," said Wong, 88. "Everyone has food to eat, employment and houses to live in. The elderly also hope the government will take better care of them."
___
In Beijing, performers in traditional Qing dynasty robes strummed zithers for a re-enactment at sunrise of a sacrificial ceremony at the Chinese capital's Temple of Earth park.
An actor portraying an emperor bowed before an altar as dozens of people in ceremonial dress behind him.
Acrobats and drummers also performed. Vendors sold toys branded with the British cartoon character Peppa Pig, which is enjoying a surge of popularity for the Year of the Pig.
"My wishes for new year are a promotion, a raise and finding a boyfriend," said a spectator, Cui Di, a 28-year-old employee of a foreign company.
___
The holiday in mainland China is marked by the biggest annual travel boom as hundreds of millions of people visit their home towns or travel abroad.
The railway ministry forecast mainland travelers would make 413 million trips during the three-week period around the holiday.
___
In Bangkok, people lit incense sticks and burned paper money and other symbolic offerings for deceased relatives despite government appeals to avoid contributing to smog.
Some shopkeepers sold symbolic ballots to burn as offerings following official promises of an election this year, the first after four years of military rule.
___
In the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, visitors left bouquets of flowers at statues of former leaders Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il.
