Around the world, communities are celebrating Lunar New Year, which begins on Feb. 7 and ends Feb. 10. Here, a look at what's going on in places as diverse as Ireland, Indonesia, the US and Cambodia.
IRELAND
A group of six-year-olds streams out of Summercove National School in Kinsale, County Cork, brandishing their carefully drawn rats as the school in southwest Ireland gears up to celebrate Lunar New Year.
"I was delighted to see her friends taking such an interest in Lunar New Year, wanting to draw pictures and learn more," says Geraldine Fay, mother of Abby, 6, and Lily, 4, who were adopted from China.
"We feel as if we have taken their culture and we would like to try and give some of it back to them. I try to make as big a deal of it as I can," says Fay, who is also pleased with the openness of the teachers' attitudes towards her daughters' culture.
"I have books and information and I send in a DVD to the school and playschool so that the children can see the customs," Fay says.
"The teachers tell them about the ... signs of the Zodiac, the story of the animals' races and about sweeping out the bad luck."
In a popular move, Fay also distributes hong bao, red envelopes with chocolate money and sweets inside, to the children on Lunar New Year's Eve.
"The playschool and school also teach the children a phonetic pronunciation of Happy New Year in Chinese."
According to Ireland's Central Statistics Office, there are over 11,000 Chinese people living in the country, but it is widely believed the figure is actually as high as 100,000.
Events kicked off with the opening of the Chinese Film Festival at the Irish Film Center on Friday, Feb. 1 with director Jia Zhangke's (賈樟柯) film Still Life (三峽好人), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 2006.
The Lunar New Year festival in Ireland also includes an international table tennis tournament, a literature and music exhibition featuring readings by Chinese writers and a Chinese Creative Writing course.
INDONESIA
It was late in the old town area of Indonesia's capital when 25 youths were sweating, laughing and shouting to each other under the dark open sky while practicing their dancing and jumping moves to the sound of a drum and cymbals.
One of them was Syafri Sanusi, a 10-year-old boy who takes part as the head of the Barongsai, which means "to dance like a lion."
The traditional dance consists of two people in lion costumes performing moves based on wushu, a full-contact sport derived from traditional martial arts.
"I become the head of the lion because I am small," Syafri said, welcomed by burst of laughs from his friends in the dance group. "But that's okay, I like performing the lion dance very much."
Syafri is indigenous Indonesian and a Muslim who joined the Kong Ha Hong, a popular lion dance group based in Jakarta, two years ago. Some might think that to be a very odd combination.
"Not anymore!" though, says Ronald Sjarif, the caretaker and owner of the dance group who was also a dancer. "Today … it is absolutely a natural way."
Indonesia comprises more than 300 native ethnic groups that speak more than 800 dialects and have several religions. The country's national ideology, Pancasila, promotes unity through diversity.
Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000 lifted the bans that the late former dictator, Suharto, had imposed. That year, celebrations were held in Jakarta for the first time in decades.
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