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January 23, 2012 |
Lunar New Year 2012
The lunar new year is celebrated throughout the world, but especially in Asia when the lunisolar calendar ticks off a new cycle. This year is the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac, and is viewed as very auspicious. In China, the holiday is known as 春节, the Spring Festival, and kicks off 15 days of celebration. It also triggers the largest human migration in the world, as hundreds of millions of Chinese trek to see families. Gathered here are images of the preparation for the holiday, the travel scene in mainland China, and celebrations in many parts of the world. 新年快乐! -- Lane Turner/雷恩 (38 photos total)

Chinese folk artists perform the lion dance at a temple fair to celebrate the Lunar New Year on January 22, 2012 in Beijing. Also known as the Spring Festival, which is based on the Lunisolar calendar, it is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the lunar year and ends with the Lantern Festival on the Fifteenth day. (Feng Li/Getty Images)

Banh Chung rice cakes await cooking at Tranh Khuc village outside Hanoi on January 14, 2012. Rice cakes are a traditional food dish eaten during the Vietnamese new year known as Tet. Tranh Khuc village is well-known for its Banh Chung, with about 90 percent of more than 200 families providing the treats daily to market. During the Tet, each family makes an average of 1,000 pieces per day and sells them for 30,000 dong ($1.4) per cake. (Kham/Reuters) #

Austin Tseng watches her doctor perform an ultrasound imaging on her "dragon baby" at the Adventist Hospital in Taipei on January 18, 2012. Some believe that babies born in the auspicious Year of the Dragon in the 12-year zodiac cycle are gifted with prodigious quantities of luck and strength. (Wally Santana/Associated Press) #

Angelito "Karat Chef" Araneta Jr. looks at his edible water dragon sculpture made of gum-paste icing inside a restaurant in Manila on January 20, 2012. The sculpture is coated with 24k gold leaf and adorned with 17 Mikimoto pearls and two diamonds on the eyeballs. Angelito made the sculpture, which costs around 600,000 pesos ($13,863), for lunar new year. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters) #

Former North Korean defectors living in South Korea release balloons carrying snacks in Ganghwa near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas on January 20, 2012. About 100 kgs of Choco Pie, the thick wafer-like confection made in the South but also popular in the North and abroad, were launched by 20 large balloons across the border. (Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images) #

People rush to place joss sticks at the Guan Yin temple in Singapore on January 23, 2012. Worshippers gather annually at the temple on the eve of the lunar new year with hopes to be the first person to offer joss sticks when the clock strikes midnight, believed to bring prosperity and luck. (Edgar Su/Reuters) #

North Korean children celebrate the first day of the lunar new year in Pyongyang, North Korea on January 23, 2012. Pyongyang residents said they were encouraged to celebrate the traditional holiday as they usually do, despite the death of Kim Jong Il, only the second leader North Koreans have known since the nation was founded in 1948. (Kim Kwang Hyon/Associated Press) #
More links and information
Ringing in the Year of the Dragon - NYTimes.com, 1/23
Lunar New Year - Wikipedia entry
Bad weather makes way home harder - People's Daily, 1/22