抖阴ap

Beijing – Asians burned incense in temples thick with clouds of eye-stinging smoke and gathered for feasts of chicken, hot pots and dumplings Sunday as they celebrated the first day of the Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Pig.

Across China, revelers brought in the New Year late Saturday and early Sunday with the boom of firecrackers and fireworks – an ancient New Year’s tradition meant to drive away bad luck and scare off evil spirits. Streets were littered with tattered red paper and cardboard casings from spent fireworks.

At Beijing’s Lama and White Cloud temples, faithful tossed coins at incense burners in the hope one would land in the pot and bring them good luck for the year ahead. Vendors in the city’s parks sold pork dumplings and other treats, such as freshly made caramel candy sculpted into chubby pig shapes.

The pig is one of 12 animals (or mythical animals, in the case of the dragon) on the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac, which follows the lunar calendar. According to Chinese astrology, people born in pig years are polite, honest, hardworking and loyal. They are also lucky, which is why many Chinese like to have babies in a pig year.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao made separate visits to remote villages in poorer areas, chatting and cooking with locals in far western Gansu and northern Liao ning provinces. Such trips are part of efforts to show that the leadership cares about those living in the countryside, where incomes average $400 a year.

In Hong Kong, the normally bustling streets were empty as families gathered for New Year feasts and visited temples to pray.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse shed their usual Western clothes and wore traditional Chinese outfits.

In Taiwan, worshippers gathered at temples around the island, holding incense sticks and bowing in the direction of Buddhist and Taoist deities for good luck.