Year of the Dragon begins

Most important annual holiday in China is a time for reunions, feasting.

The Lunar New Year began Saturday with family gatherings, festivals and temple visits to ask for blessings.

The Lunar New Year is the most important annual holiday in China, a time for reunions with relatives and friends and to enjoy festive feasts. Each year is named after one of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac, with this year being the Year of the Dragon — widely considered the most auspicious zodiac sign in Chinese communities.

The Year of the Dragon is also a popular year to give birth for Chinese because many couples hope their children will possess remarkable qualities symbolized by dragons, including strength, power and success.

Many residents of Hong Kong dressed in red, a lucky color in Chinese culture, to mark the start of the year. In gatherings, they savored rice cakes and turnip cakes, with children receiving cash-stuffed red envelopes as blessings from their married relatives.

Outdoor exhibitions and floral displays prepared for the festival offered a chance for revelers to pose for photos.

In Beijing, crowds of people flocked to temple fairs to see traditional folk performances and bought snacks and artwork from booths.

Many lit incense sticks to pray for good health and fortune.

Along with the predominantly Chinese societies in the Greater China region, the festival is also celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam and in overseas Chinese communities. In Myanmar and Malaysia, worshippers visited temples to pray for good luck and blessings. In Dharamshala, India, exiled Tibetan monks also took part in ceremonies to mark their new year.

CHIANG YING-YING/ASSOCIATED PRESS TAIWAN: Worshippers go to pray at a temple Saturday, the first day of the Lunar New Year celebrations in Taipei. 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 Dragon.

AP INDIA: Exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks blow ceremonial conch shells to mark the Lunar New Year at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala.

AP CAMBODIA: Members of the Cambodian Chinese community dance Friday in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, ahead of the new year.

BINSAR BAKKARA/AP VIETNAM: A man holds up a dragon decoration Thursday in a traditional Lunar New Year market in Hanoi.

AP INDONESIA: An Indonesian ethnic Chinese man lights joss sticks Saturday during the Lunar New Year celebration in Medan, North Sumatra.

AP HONG KONG: Worshippers offer incense Saturday at the Che Kung temple to welcome in the Lunar New Year.

ANDY WONG/AP CHINA: Women take a selfie Thursday with a giant dragon lantern near the frozen Houhai Lake in Beijing.