The Lunar New Year has been celebrated around the world, where lunar phases (and not calendars) indicate the start of 2024. This year, the Lunar New Year fell on 10 February.
Chinese New Year is based on a lunisolar calendar, where the year starts when the second new Moon of the year (following the Winter Solstice) indicates the start of a new year. It is considered to be one of the most important days in Chinese culture, where families join together to celebrate and eat together.
This year is the year of the dragon, the fifth of a 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese calendar. As people born in the year of the dragon are thought to have more power, luck and success than other animals, birth dates in China tend to increase during this lunar year.
But the Lunar New Year isn't just celebrated in China. Here's how people from around the world marked the event.
James Cutmore is the picture editor of BBC Science Focus Magazine. He has worked on the magazine and website for over a decade, telling compelling science stories through the use of striking imagery. He holds a degree in Fine Art, and has been nominated for the British Society of Magazine Editors Talent Awards, being highly commended in 2020. His main areas of interest include photography that highlights positive technology and the natural world. For many years he was a judge for the Wellcome Trust's image competition, as well as judging for the Royal Photographic Society.
This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk