People across China, who often consider their country to be shaped like a rooster, are greeting the most lucky and auspicious animal sign this Spring Festival, or the first day of the "Year of the Rooster."

A girl looks at dough figurines at a temple fair in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province February 1, 2005. Various kinds of folk performances attract many people. Temple fair is an important part of Spring Festival celebrations for Chinese people, although it doesn't have to be at temples. [Xinhua]

The word for "rooster" has the same pronunciation as "luck" in Chinese language and is the 10th in a 12-year rotation on the Chinese lunar calendar that begins with rat and ends with pig.

In honor of the incoming lunar new year, the Beijing-based People's Bank of China has issued commemorative coins engraved with new-born chicks.

Shanghai saw a two-story-high cock built from 10,000 soda cans. A zoo in southern Shenzhen even held a show displaying more than 1,000 rare pheasants.

On the threshold of the first fifth year in the new century, modernization has changed a host of traditional Chinese Spring Festival customs.

People will rely mainly on phone calls and mobile phone text messages to send their new year wishes and 16 percent of them will prefer outdoor traveling to spend the coming festival, according to data collected by the Social Survey Institute of China in 12 large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

During the last Spring Festival, Beijing mobile phone users alone sent more than 100 million text messages, contributing at least 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) of profits to China Mobile and China Unicom, the country's two largest mobile carriers.

In 2004, approximately 28,000 Beijing tourists went overseas during the week-long holiday, according to travel agencies.

The survey, however, disclosed that 60 percent of those interviewed regret the decline in traditional celebrations.

Most of them deem it necessary to continue the practice of hosting a family dinner on new year's eve, or chuxi.

Thus, temple fairs, markets and even modern shopping malls are filled with traditional paper-cut designs, popular new year pictures, red lanterns and lucky Chinese knots. Fluffy rooster toys are also clad in Chinese-style costumes.

Newspapers, not to miss out on the story opportunities provided by a Rooster Year, have devoted page after page to reminding readers that the rooster is not only a faithful herald announcing the dawn of a day but also believed to be a talisman warding off evil spirits in ancient times.

Rooster, also an incarnation of the phoenix, has widely been taken as the leader of birds. The phoenix, a mythological fowl, can fly into heaven and bring people good fortune.

But the 20th century's first Rooster Year, in 1909, was devoid of entertainment and celebrations because China was mourning the passing away of their emperor during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the last feudal dynasty in the country.

Editor: Catherine