Lunar New Year festivals and prayers are marking the start of the Year of the Snake around Asia and farther afield.

This ancient Chinese festival is a time to put everything from the previous year in the past and look forward to all that will come in the new year. For those who participate in this two-week celebration,

Lunar New Year festivals and prayers marked the start of the Year of the Snake around Asia and farther afield on Wednesday — including in Moscow. Hundreds of people lined up in the hours before midnight at the Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong in a bid to be among the first to put incense sticks in the stands in front of the temple’s main hall.