Year Of The Pig

An acrobat performs sword swallowing at the Changdian New Year Temple Fair on Feb. 22, 2007, in Beijing, China. Chinese worldwide are celebrating the Lunar New Year of the Pig.

Fireworks are displayed on a road to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Feb. 18, 2007, in Beijing, China.

Indonesian-Chinese pray at a temple to celebrate Chinese New Year in Jakarta, Feb. 18, 2007. Public displays of Chinese culture and religious practices were banned in Indonesia under the three-decade rule of former dictator Suharto, who stepped down in 1998. The discriminatory law was overturned in 2000 and the Chinese community is rediscovering its traditions in the world's largest Muslim populated nation.

Dancers in traditional costumes peform at Ditan Park Temple Fair to usher in the new lunar year in Beijing, Feb. 17, 2007. Chinese will celebrate the new Year of the Pig on Feb. 18, when millions will begin their Spring Festival holidays.

Piggyback ride anyone? A boy carries a balloon on his back at a Lunar New Year fair in Hong Kong on Feb. 16, 2007. The Chinese New Year on Feb. 18 will mark the Year of the Pig. Saturday's Lunar New Year's Eve -- celebrated by one-fifth of the world's population -- is an occasion to have family feasts, buy new clothes and exchange red envelopes stuffed with gift money.

Thousands of Chinese travelers rush to buy their train tickets at the railway station in Beijing on Feb. 16, 2007. The Lunar New Year travel rush, the world's largest annual mass migration, hits its feverish peak as Chinese are expected to take a record 2.17 billion passenger trips on planes, trains, cars and buses for the holiday -- the most important day on the Chinese calendar.

A Tai Chi martial arts practitioner performs exercises underneath lanterns at twilight on the premises of a Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Feb. 16, 2007, ahead of the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year. According to Chinese astrology, people born in the Year of the Pig are polite, honest, hardworking and loyal. They are also lucky, which is why many Chinese like to have babies in a pig year.

Miniature pigs wait for visitors to feed them at a Shanghai zoo on Feb. 15, 2007. The Year of the Pig will see more epidemics, natural disasters and international conflicts than have been seen in other years of the pig, Chinese soothsayers in Asia predict.

A piglet tries to cross to another lane during a piglet race in Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb. 15, 2007. The race was held during an event organized by a local hotel as part of celebrations for the upcoming Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar -- one of 12 animals on the dozen-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.

Brigitte Arle, left, puts on a head dress as Ting Ye, 6, center, has makeup put on by Mei Tiang, right, in preparation for the "Chinese New Year Spectacular" at New York's Radio City Music Hall on Feb. 14, 2007. The "Chinese New Year Spectacular" featured elaborate costumes and settings as well as dancers, singers and musicians.

A boy purchases a pig toy at a new year market in Hong Kong on Feb. 14, 2007. Fortune tellers say the Chinese zodiac's Year of the Pig, which starts on Feb. 18, will be a good time to have a baby. But they also warn of rising epidemics, disasters and violence around the world.

Shoppers walk past a tree decorated with handmade miniature umbrellas created in the shape on flowers on display at a shopping mall in conjunction with Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Feb. 15, 2007. The upcoming Lunar New Year, the "Year of the Pig," will be celebrated by ethnic Chinese worldwide on Feb. 18.

Tourists look at the pig-shaped lanterns on display at the Kek Lok Si temple in Penang Island, Malaysia, to celebrate the upcoming change of the year from the Year of the Dog to the Year of the Pig, Feb. 12, 2007. Chinese throughout the world will be celebrating the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 18.

Paper lanterns hang for the upcoming Chinese New Year Feb. 12, 2007, in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. The Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, will be celebrated Feb. 18.

Pedestrians in Shanghai, China, walk past decorations of pigs on Feb. 5, 2007. According to the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac, this year is the Year of the Pig. Pig years can be turbulent because they are dominated by fire and water -- two of the five elements that Chinese mystics say are the basis of the universe.

A dog and a pig are shown during a promotional event at a Hong Kong shopping mall on Jan. 25, 2007, to celebrate the upcoming change of the year from the Year of the Dog to the Year of the Pig as the Chinese Lunar New Year begins on Feb. 18.