The Lunar New Year is the most important annual holiday in China and is also celebrated in other countries such as Vietnam, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.
The Chinese zodiac is made up of 12 animals, starting with the rat and running through the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Those born in the Year of the Rabbit — including 2023, 2011, 1999, 1987 and every 12-year cycle before that — are associated with qualities like calm, empathy, patience and ingenuity.
While communities across Asia are welcoming the Year of the Rabbit, the Vietnamese are instead celebrating the Year of the Cat.
For the past three years, Lunar New Year celebrations were muted in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lion dances are a form of traditional dance in China and other Asian countries — often performed at Lunar New Year celebrations — in which performers in a lion costume mimic the animal’s movements.
The dances date back thousands of years and are usually performed in colourful costumes, with a front dancer controlling a giant lion mask while another at the back controls the body and legs.
Another popular Lunar New Year tradition is when parents, married couples and older family members hand out red envelopes containing crisp money and treats to unmarried youth and younger children.
The envelopes are red because the colour brings prosperity in Chinese culture, while money symbolizes the hope for wealth and abundance.