Chinese celebrate new year with fireworks, feasts (Roundup)

Feb 17, 2007, 16:07 GMT

Members of a troupe perform outside a Temple in Beijing to welcome the Lunar New Year on the first day of the Year of the Pig, Sunday 18 February 2007. The Chinese New Year or \'Spring Festival\' as it is better known in mainland China, is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar, a time for families to get together, and local parks and temple fairs put on traditional performances. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL

Beijing - The Chinese celebrated their lunar new year Saturday night by firing off millions of fireworks and holding traditional family feasts.

The Year of the Pig, the last of the 12 Chinese animal zodiac signs, began with a crescendo of bangs, booms, pops and whizzes from a mixture of traditional firecrackers and increasingly large and sophisticated fireworks.

The 15 million residents of China's capital Beijing were forecast to spend about 114 million yuan (14.7 million dollars) to buy more than 510,000 boxes of fireworks in only the second year since the Beijing city government lifted an unpopular ban on fireworks imposed in 1993.

In a speech to mark the new year Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called on his government and party to 'understand the concerns of people.' He said problems with education, health and poverty would have to be concretely addressed.

Several hundred million Chinese were on the move Saturday to return to their home districts in time for the start of the new year. Some 155 million people were estimated to be travelling by train alone while others travelled by boat, car, plane and ship.

In the 40 peak travel days around the holiday the authorities estimated there would be two billion trips. More than 4,000 flights were booked in the last two weeks.

The state news agency Xinhua reported that China's 455 million mobile phone owners would send 40 million text messages of good wishes per hour on Saturday.

The Chinese zodiac animal signs are linked each year to the ancient binary opposition of yin and yang and to one of the five elements of metal, fire, wood, earth and water. This gives a combination that recurs every 60 years.

The coming year is regarded as being particularly auspicious because it is linked with the element of fire, making it the Golden Year of the Pig.

Together with the surge in marriages last year, the desire for 'golden' heirs means an increase in births is expected this year. Because of this the new year was also forecast to herald a spending spree on maternity wear and baby clothes.

Some of Beijing's top maternity hospitals are already feeling the strain of a jump in patient numbers. The city expects at least 150,000 births this year, a rise of more than 15 per cent compared with the 129,000 births in 2006.