Lunar new year brings China out from under pall of Covid

China emerges from COVID's shadow during the Lunar New Year. After the government dropped its rigorous zero-COVID policy, people rang in the lunar new year with family gatherings and large crowds visiting temples, marking the largest holiday celebration since the epidemic started three years ago.In China, the Lunar New Year is the most significant yearly holiday. The Chinese zodiac names each year after one of the 12 signs, with the current year being the year of the rabbit. In light of the epidemic, festivities have been subdued over the previous three years.Many people could finally make their first trip back to their home places to reconcile with their families thanks to the relaxation of most COVID-19 limitations.Many people were able to make their first trip back to their hometowns to rejoin with their family when the majority of COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed since they no longer had to worry about quarantine, prospective lockdowns, or travel bans. For what is known as the spring festival in China, broader public celebrations also returned, with the nation's capital staging thousands of cultural activities on a grander scale than the previous year.Wu Zunyou, the director of the Center for Disease Control in China, warned that the widespread mobility of people might contribute to the development of the virus in some locales. However, a significant COVID-19 rise in the ensuing two to three months would be improbable given that the current wave had infected 80% of the nation's 1.4 billion inhabitants,

On social media, he posted.Numerous worshippers performed morning prayers at the Lama Temple in Beijing, but the gathering there looked to be lower than they were before the pandemic. Due of safety concerns, the Tibetan Buddhist site only permits 60,000 people each day and needs reservations.Taoranting Park's paths were adorned with traditional Chinese lanterns, but there was little trace of the park's busy New Year food vendors. This week, the well-liked Badachu Park temple festival will be back, but Ditan Park and Longtan Lake Park have yet to have a comparable event.People came to Wong Tai Sin, the biggest Taoist temple in Hong Kong, to burn the first incense of the year. Popular ritual at the location was stopped.

On the lunar new year's eve, large groups assemble prior to 11 p.m., with everyone racing to get their incense sticks into the stands in front of the temple's main hall before anybody else. The first people to set their incense sticks, according to worshippers, will have the highest chance of having their prayers granted.The fact that Freddie Ho, who went to the temple on Saturday night, could attend in person made him delighted."I intend to light the first incense stick and offer a prayer for the eradication of the epidemic, world peace, and a prosperous economy in Hong Kong in the next year.Ho stated, "I wish to light the first incense stick and pray that the new year will bring world peace, that Hong Kong's economy will flourish, and that the epidemic would go away from us so that we can all live a normal life. "I think that's what everyone wants,"