Markets in the Chinese city of Wuhan celebrate Lunar New Year, despite the memory of COVID-19

The inhabitants of wuhan They flocked to the lively flower market this Saturday to prepare for the Lunar New Year, three years after a mysterious virus plunged the Chinese city into a terrifying lockdown.

While some people chose the color and type of flowers to celebrate the Spring Festival, others came for a more somber reason: the death of a loved one due to the recent wave of covid-19.

“I have friends and family who have passed away during this time,” Zhang, 54, told AFP, clutching a bouquet of chrysanthemums, which symbolize grief in Chinese culture.

Visiting the homes of the recently deceased to offer them flowers is part of the New Year’s Eve customs in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, said Zhang, who declined to give his full name.

In December, Beijing lifted the draconian ‘zero covid’ strategy imposed by the authorities, a policy that slowed down the economy of the Asian giant and triggered large demonstrations. Since then, the country has registered a spectacular increase in infections.

Wuhan, a metropolis on the banks of the Yangtze River, reported the first cases of covid-19 in the world at the end of 2019.

The inhabitants still remember that to stop the contagion, the authorities imposed a strict confinement two days before the Year of the Rat, in January 2020.

Deprived of New Year’s celebrations, the 11 million inhabitants of this city were cut off from the world for 76 days. The city then became the epicenter of an epidemic that became global.

– “I love Wuhan” –

On Saturday, the city seemed to have returned to normal and was preparing to celebrate one of the most important holidays of the year in China.

Multicolored lanterns and lanterns adorned the commercial district of Jianghan and on one wall a large banner with a heart and the phrase: “I love Wuhan” could be seen. [Amo a Wuhan, en inglés].

An elderly man on a bicycle was struggling to pedal as he loaded boxes of food onto his bike. Not far away, a couple with a small child were squeezing together on a scooter after shopping.

“Now, as everyone has already had covid, we can have a proper Chinese New Year. That makes us very happy,” Zhu told AFP as he bought flowers at the market.

The lifting of the restrictions also gave a new impetus to florists.

“At the beginning of the year, with the covid, we had no business,” said Liu, a shopkeeper in her 60s. “Now that we reopen, we have a little more,” she explained.

“During the covid, there were very few people buying flowers, but these years a lot of people have died from the covid, so the sales of chrysanthemums have increased a lot,” added Tao, another vendor.

“During the confinement, we did not sell any of the flowers we had. We threw them all away,” she recalled, putting the finishing touches on a flower arrangement.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.