China celebrates New Year hoping the Year of the Ox wards off Covid-19
Peking residents walk on Qianmen Street on February 11, 2021, ahead of the start of the Lunar New Year celebrations, which marks the start of the year of the buffalo on February 12.
AFP - NOEL CELIS
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
A moment of celebration and reunion with the family in much of Asia: Friday February 12 marks the Lunar New Year and the start of the year of the metal ox or the buffalo.
The animal, in the Chinese zodiac, symbolizes regained energy and the return to work.
In Beijing, many are hoping this will help forget the Year of the Rat and the Covid-19 pandemic.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
In the shops of the Yonghegong district of Beijing, Buddhist chants mix with Taoist rituals without managing to attract customers.
Because
with health restrictions
, the nearby Lamas temple is closed.
"
Niu qi chong tian
" ("
may the strength of the beef rise high in the sky
"), launch two waitresses in a hurry.
"
This year, we hope that the beef will drive out the Covid-19
", continues one of them.
Chasing
the pandemic,
forgetting the horrible year that has just passed: many repeat it.
Behind a small wooden door, seer Zhang Xiaotian predicts best with entry into Xin Chou, the Year of the Golden Ox.
“
This Year of the Ox is a big year, it only happens every 60 years
,” he predicts
.
From April, there will be some auspicious signs.
Good last year too, the rat was exceptional, but in negative.
Already in 1960, many people had died of hunger in China.
Same thing with the war 120 years ago.
"
If the Year of the Ox is the springboard year before coming out of the health crisis, it is also the year of effort, of rediscovered work.
And Chinese migrants know something about it.
"
The year of the ox is the year or I will not go home for chunjié
" (the Lunar New Year) affirms this delivery man, who like many preferred to give up the spring holidays because of health restrictions.
According to the Bloomberg agency, 85% of employees in the South will remain working in the workshop of the world.
►
To read also: One year after Wuhan, China is reconfiguring itself
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