People celebrate Chinese New Year, Tet across Asia

World Today

All around Asia celebrations and preparations are taking place for Lunar New Year. It’s the year of the Sheep; or where it is celebrated in Vietnam and called Tet, it’s the year of the goat. CCTV’s Shi Dan filed this report.

The festival mood was also felt in Bangkok, where Thai Deputy Prime Minister Vishanu Krua-Ngam, whose family is of Chinese origin, attended a temple fair in the center of the city.

The Ditan Temple Fair is a very good opportunity for people to enjoy the festival. With so many traditional Chinese activities on display, you feel like you are in Ditan Temple Fair in Beijing.

In Japan, the Chinese consulate in Niigata held a Spring Festival exhibition for local residents presenting performances, couplets and traditional food.

“Shows like this bring relations between our two peoples closer. We should have activities like this,” A Niigata resident said.

In Australia there are plenty of Chinese lanterns, lights, dragons and dancers in the streets of Sydney where a 20-day celebration is welcoming in the year of the sheep.

In Vietnam the old quarter of Hanoi saw streets buzzing with people shopping for decorative items. The traditional New Year known in Vietnam as Tet, falls on the same day as the Chinese New Year.