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Biden cluelessly joked “no firecrackers tonight!” while hosting a Lunar New Year event at the White House turned heads Thursday following two recent mass shootings of mostly Asian-American victims in California. The president made the remark in a light-hearted tone after speaking about the murder of 11 people in Monterey Park, Calif., on Jan. 21, followed by the murder of seven people in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Monday. “It’s a time of renewal and reflection, hope and possibilities — for good over evil, for sharing meals, for celebrating firec — no firecrackers tonight!” Biden said, apparently improvising an edit...

People across China rang in the Lunar New Year on Sunday with large family gatherings and crowds visiting temples after the government lifted its strict "zero-COVID" policy, marking the biggest festive celebration since the pandemic began three years ago. The Lunar New Year is the most important annual holiday in China. Each year is named after one of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac in a repeating cycle, with this year being the Year of the Rabbit. For the past three years, celebrations were muted in the shadow of the pandemic. With the easing of most COVID-19 restrictions, many...

On a farm close to Hanoi, Le Van Hien picks out the best bird among his flock of "dragon chickens" - a breed with legs as thick as a brick that can fetch up to US$2,000 a head. The lumpy legs of the Dong Tao chicken - named after the commune where it is bred in northern Vietnam - are considered a delicacy, and are particularly popular among the wealthy during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, known as Tet. Hien's prized 4kg bird, whose enormous legs make up around a fifth of its body weight, was sold for about US$150...

I had the day off today and I noticed that all the news programs are calling it Lunar New Year rather than Chinese New Year.

GOP mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis today blasted the MTA of being insensitive to the city’s Asian community by suspending No. 7 weekend train service during Lunar New Year festivities—the most significant Asian holiday of the year. The 7 train runs from Times Square in Manhattan to Flushing in Queens, home of the city’s largest ethnic Chinese and Korean communities. The track work suspends service in Manhattan. “The MTA has no respect for the Asian people. It’s terrible,” Catsimatides said. …

Beijingers send 400 mln text messages on Lunar New Year's eve www.chinaview.cn 2007-02-19 01:15:46 BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Beijingers sent more than 400 million text messages of greetings on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, the most important festival in China. Figures released Sunday by Beijing Mobile and Beijing Unicom, two major telecommunications operators in the Chinese capital, showed that about 5,800 text messages were sent per second Saturday in Beijing. The Chinese Lunar New Year starts on the first day of the first lunar month, which falls on Sunday this year. Reuniting with...

ON February 18, the Chinese world will usher in the new year of an animal, but its identity will be suppressed. A billion people will view China's - and the world's - most-watched annual television show, the Chinese New Year's Eve variety spectacular, but the viewers will be no wiser as to which animal is involved. Left out ... pigs won't be mentioned in China's Year of the Pig celebrations to avoid offending the country's Muslim population / File