Millions welcome new year
NZPA-Reuter Hong Kong’
Asians by the hundreds of millions have celebrated the start of the auspicious year of the horse hoping it would be a vast improvement over the disastrous year of the snake.
Hong Kong residents left! the British colony on Tues-! day to gamble in Macao <r| visit friends on the main land: Thai soccer tans staged a game between two earns 'of elephants: and parents everywhere gave their children “lucky money.” Chinese mythology says the horse is a symbol of prosperity, good fortune, and abundant crops and most of Asia came to a halt to mark the year 2522 on the Buddhist calendar. Gone at last was the snake, which slithered off into welcome oblivion and took with it a year o c natural disasters and drought. The normally bustling | streets, shops, restaurants, and night clubs in Chinese communities across the continent fell quiet as families gathered in their homes to begin the three-day Chinese New Year — the biggest |holiday of the lunar zodiac
Most newspapers halted] publication for the three-day] festivity, and banks and stock exchanges closed. Foreign residents and Chi-] nese radio reports said; China had heralded the eve,' of the New Year with the] ] largest and most relaxed: ;• celebrations in more than 20 j; years, reflecting a new mood in the country since the: purge of the radical “Gang; of Four.” Married couples across Asia, true to the tradition of ] all Chinese New Year beginnings. passed out “laisees” , — little red paper packets containing “lucky money” , to children and single men and women. ,
Millions welcome new year
Press, 9 February 1978, Page 7
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