Chinese New Year Celebrations From Around The World In 29 Amazing Photos

Dancers perform a fire dragon dance in the shower of molten iron spewing firework-like sparks during a folk art performance to celebrate the traditional Chinese Spring Festival on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which welcomes the Year of the Horse, at the Happy Valley amusement park in Beijing Jan. 31, 2014.

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A Chinese folk artist performs at the opening ceremony of the Spring Festival Temple Fair in Beijing, one of millions of people around the world celebrating ahead of Chinese, or Lunar, New Year.

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A Chinese girl surrounded by the crowd as they scramble for sweets and mandarin oranges thrown by the member of lion dance troop in Tien Hou Temple as Malaysians celebrate Chinese New Year on Jan. 31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Chinese New Year is traditionally celebrated from the last day on the last month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month.

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Chinese Lion dancers perform amid exploding fire crackers during Chinese New Year celebrations in Kolkata, India, Jan. 31, 2014.

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Indonesian performers dressed as mermaids wearing traditional Chinese cheongsam dress and a lion perform underwater in a special program celebrating the Lunar New Year at Jakarta's Ancol park on Jan. 31.

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Performers dance at the 2014 Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade on Jan. 31, 2014 in Hong Kong. Many people working far from home in China return to family ahead of the two-week holiday period. The financially well-off travel to resorts.

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A couple walk beneath a display of lanterns for the Lunar New Year in Beijing on Jan. 28, 2014. Some have mixed feelings around this time, embarrassed about returning to see family, for example because they remain unmarried or because they are disappointed with their earnings. Others can’t because they haven’t been paid by their employers.

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A fire eater performs in front of a business establishment in celebration of Chinese New Year at Manila's Chinatown district of Binondo, Philippines on January 31. This year in the Chinese Lunar calendar is the Year of the Horse.

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Shopkeepers wait for customers at a store selling various Lunar New Year decorations at the Chinatown in Jakarta, Indonesia on Jan. 28, 2014. The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, is based on a 12-year cycle. Each year in that cycle has an animal sign: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

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A monk walks near a lamp ahead of Chinese New Year celebrations inside a temple in Jenjarom, outside Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 29, 2014. Chinese New Year is also a celebrated public holiday in a number of places with sizable Chinese communities.

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Buddhist monks hit a giant bell at the Dharma Drum Mountain monastery in northern Taiwan.

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A shutter delay image shows Chinese Filipinos pray at the Seng Guan Temple in the Chinese district of Binondo on Jan. 30 in Manila, Philippines. Thousands gathered today to celebrate the Chinese New Year and welcome the Year of the Wooden Horse, with New Year's Day which falls on Jan. 31. Chinese New Year is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar and is widely celebrated across Asia.

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Fireworks illuminate the skyline to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year of Horse and cause severe air pollution on Jan. 30, 2014 in Beijing. The holiday is bright, colourful and loud, with lots of fireworks (posing safety and pollution risks), lanterns, dragon and lion dancing, feasting and symbolic food-offering and visits to Buddhist and Taoist temples.

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In Shanghai too there were celebrations to mark the incoming Year of the Horse. Traditionally, New Year celebrates the start of the ploughing and sowing season and the arrival of new life.

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Sub-marine celebrations were held to entertain visitors at Singapore's South East Asia Aquarium.

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A lion dance is performed in front of the Chinese restaurant in the Yokohama China Town on Jan. 31, 2014 in Yokohama, Japan.

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Chinese performers take part in a traditional Qing Dynasty ceremony in which emperors prayed for good fortune, during Lunar New Year festivities at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on Jan. 31. China welcomed in the Year of the Horse which sees about 3.62 billion trips made by Chinese travellers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel period.

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Hoping for a bright new year, people pose for photos around artificial cherry blossom trees with LED lights on, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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People perform a Chinese traditional lion dance during a dragon and lion dance competition marking the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year in Yangon on Jan. 24, 2014.

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Performers pose for photographs in their lion costume backdropped by the London Eye during a photocall in London on Jan. 30. The London Eye was illuminated with red lighting Thursday evening to mark the start of the Chinese new year, the Year of the Horse, on Friday.

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Wax figures of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan pay a visit to London's Chinatown, braving the rain.

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Worshippers burn incense to pray for good fortune on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which welcomes the Year of the Horse, at Dafo temple in Chongqing municipality, Jan. 31, 2014. Some of the traditions attached are: giving red envelopes with money in them to children, making amends and getting a haircut.

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Lion dancers perform during the Asian Lunar New Year Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival, in Roosevelt Park, New York’s Chinatown, Friday, Jan. 31, 2014.

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North Korean-born Kang Myeong-wook (R) bows with his granddaughter towards the North Korean border at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at Imjingak, Paju, in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province on January 31. Many South Korean families with members originating from the North visit the DMZ during the Lunar New Year holiday to send symbolic offerings to relatives thought to still be there.

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People burn incense sticks and pray to mark the Lunar New Year at the International Buddhist Temple in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, Jan. 30, 2014. Thousands of people gathered at the temple to celebrate the beginning of the new year.

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People rush to plant the first joss stick of the Chinese New Year at the stroke of midnight at a temple in Singapore. This year marks the year of the horse according to Chinese astrology, generally considered an auspicious time, and business-savvy residents of the territory were hoping for vigorous growth.

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Performers dance at the 2014 Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade on Jan. 31, 2014 in Hong Kong. The parade featured illuminated floats accompanied by local and international performing groups which entertained both locals and tourists on Chinese Lunar New Year.

A performer blows fire during the Chinese New Year celebration in Manila's Chinatown on Jan. 31, 2014. The holiday is generally a time for feasting and visiting friends and relatives, along with making visits to Buddhist and Taoist temples, many of which hold fairs and stage performances.

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Lanterns are hung in a Chinese temple ahead of Chinese New Year celebrations in Kuala Lumpur Jan. 30, 2014. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year, which welcomes the year of the horse, falls on January 31 this year.