Hundreds of millions in Asia celebrate Year of the Snake

Hundreds of millions of people across Asia celebrate the Lunar New Year with their families on Wednesday, as they bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon and usher in the Year of the Snake.

The Chinese enjoy eight consecutive public holidays for the 2025 Spring Festival, an opportunity to share meals, attend traditional performances, and set off firecrackers and fireworks.

Train stations and airports across the country have been jam-packed for weeks as millions returned home to spend the holidays with their loved ones in an annual migration that is expected to be a record.

And high streets, shopping malls, offices and homes are bedecked in festive red banners -- believed to ward off evil -- throughout many parts of East and Southeast Asia, including South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

In Taiwan on Wednesday morning, people of all ages thronged temples across the island to make offerings of fruit, sweets, crackers and nuts, and mediate and pray.

Some temple-goers ushered in the new year by racing to be the first to release incense in the pursuit of good fortune.

"I didn't want to look back with regret when I'm old, so I decided to go for it," Kao Meng-shun said, after winning the event at Fusing Temple in Yunlin County, in the central-west of Taiwan.

"While I'm still young and have the energy, it's the perfect time to take action and make the most of it."

During the traditional 40-day period that runs before, during and after the Lunar New Year holidays in mainland China, about nine billion interprovincial passenger trips on all forms of transport are expected to be made.

Train and air travel are expected to "hit record highs" during this year's migration, state news agency Xinhua said.

In South Korea, heavy snowfall caused disruption to train, plane and bus schedules nationwide, as people went to visit their families in the countryside this week.

Passengers were seen at Seoul's main train station carrying gifts wrapped in colourful cloth and luggage as they prepared to leave the capital.