Editor's Note: Spring Festival, or the Year of the Pig in the Chinese lunar calendar, falls on Feb 5 this year. To celebrate the biggest annual festival in China, people will gather with their families and friends, wearing new clothes and eating traditional food.

With China's growing influence in the world, Chinese New Year has become one of the world's most prominent and celebrated festivals. Splendid fireworks, colorful parades, New Year concerts and star-studded galas are seen across the globe during the festival.

Here are some of the stories and pictures showing how Spring Festival is celebrated around the world.

London activities feature Chinese culture

By DU XIAOYING in London

Hundreds of thousands of people in the United Kingdom will experience some of the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations outside Asia in early February, at an event that will feature dragon and lion dances, stage performances, parades, traditional Chinese food and a wide range of fun activities.

The actual date of Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, varies from year to year because it is dictated by the lunar calendar. Each year of the Chinese calendar is represented by one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. This year marks the Year of Pig, and Lunar New Year falls on Feb 5.

The celebrations in London will take place on Feb 10 throughout the downtown area. Most of the stage performances are set for Trafalgar Square, most foodie treats can be found in Chinatown, family-friendly entertainment will be based in Leicester Square, and additional stages will be set up on Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road.

All the events are free to attend.

More than 50 colorful handcrafted floats will take part in the Chinese New Year Parade, which will set off at 10 am from Charing Cross Road before passing along Shaftesbury Avenue and ending up in Chinatown.

Trafalgar Square's festivities will begin at noon, with screen shows and a thanksgiving ceremony followed by speeches, firecrackers, and the lions' eye-dotting ceremony, where special guests will paint the eyes on the giant lion costume.

People will get to see traditional dragon and flying lion dances, ahead of stage performances that will include Chinese dance and music shows, acrobatics, rock music, and interactive dance sessions.

The celebration will also offer the chance to taste Chinese food, with street food on sale at stalls lining Trafalgar Square.

People will be able to experience the special performances, workshops and activities between noon and 6 pm, including performances by British-Chinese artists in the talent and community zone on Charing Cross Road, the children's zone in Leicester Square, and martial arts performances on Shaftesbury Avenue.

In recent years, with the country's Chinese community has become more integrated, China's international profile has risen, there have been several landmark Chinese investments in the UK, and a growing number of Chinese students are choosing to study in British universities, meaning the cultural significance of Chinese New Year in the country has increased significantly.

Around 430,000 ethnic Chinese people live in the UK, and the population is growing.

Celebrating Spring Festival the African way, spreading warmth

By LUCIE MORANGI in Nairobi, Kenya

Spring Festival, also known as Lunar New Year, is one of the most important annual events for Chinese people living in South Africa.

"It is a time to spread warmth, culture, understanding and knowledge," said Erwin Pon, chairman of the Chinese Association of Gauteng. As the oldest group of its kind in South Africa, it was established in 1903 and is based in Johannesburg.

As is now tradition, the Chinese community will hold a variety of celebrations across the country. Large street parties will be held in the largest and oldest Chinatown quarters in South Africa－those in Cyrildene and Commissioner Street, Johannesburg.

"The streets, for that evening, are specially closed off and once you enter, you will find Chinese food stalls selling all sorts of wonderful and traditional food. There is a lot of entertainment, with kung fu displays, traditional dancing, singing, the lion and dragon dances, and of course, to cap off a great evening, there is a spectacular fireworks show to ward off the evil spirits and any bad luck," said Pon.

The celebrations will blend cultures by incorporating traditional indigenous songs and dances.

In the recent past, China and South Africa have strengthened their bilateral relations. Cultural events have been held in both countries to advance people-to-people exchanges.

"The cultural exchanges have been a useful platform to extend knowledge and understanding between different ethnic groups. I believe Spring Festival has become a global phenomenon, and Africans understand and celebrate it too," Pon said.

Since the festival is not recognized as a public holiday in South Africa, the celebrations are held over the weekend. Pon said the local Chinese community, about 400,000 people in total, take the opportunity to celebrate their ancient traditions, which have been passed down since their ancestors settled in the country in the early 20th century.

"We do not take it for granted, but cherish everything," said Pon, who is also the business development director for East Asia and Southeast Asia at Rand Merchant Bank.

"All in all, it is a time for families to be together, to enjoy each other's company, to reflect on the past year and to welcome in the New Year."

"Furthermore, the first Sunday of the new year, many families travel to the Nan Hua Buddhist Temple in Bronkhorstspruit, a town 50 kilometers east of Pretoria. The temple holds an annual celebration where the Buddhist ritual of ushering in the New Year is performed," Pon added.

Tokyo Tower to light up in red as highprofile guests take part

By Wang Xu in Tokyo

On Feb 4, the date of Lunar New Year's Eve this year, the landmark Tokyo Tower will be lit up in the lucky color red using 36 big spotlights, and the main deck of the tower will say "Happy Spring Festival" in Mandarin Chinese, a senior diplomat said.

"This will be the first time the Tokyo Tower has been lit up for China," said Zhan Kongchao, consul general of the Chinese embassy in Tokyo. "A lighting up festival will be held at the Place of Tokyo venue, just in front of the tower, and Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua will attend."

According to Zhan, a working group has been established to organize the event, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and Governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike are on the guest list.

The 333meter tall steel Tokyo Tower was built in 1958, and became a famous tourism site as it provides a spectacular view of the whole of the Japanese capital from its two observation decks, known as the 150-meter-high Main Deck and the 250-meter-high Top Deck.

Using spotlights and fixed bulbs, the tower sports different colors and themes for events and promotions. Landmark Light is the most frequently used theme, and is considered a namecard of Tokyo.

Apart from the Tokyo Tower lighting event, a series of activities is set to be held all over the country to celebrate this year's Spring Festival.

"If one wants to feel the Spring Festival atmosphere in Japan, I think the best place to go is Yokohama Chinatown," said Keiichiro Yoshida, a Japanese graduate who studied at Peking University in Beijing.

As one of the first settlements in Japan for Chinese migrants and their descendants, Yokohama Chinatown has been celebrating Spring Festival since 1986.

Walking along the streets of Yokohama Chinatown this year, visitors can see the lion and dragon dances, enjoy traditional performances such as acrobatics, catch the celebration parade and see thousands of lanterns lit for the festivities.

Similar events are also being planned in the Chinatowns in Kobe and Nagasaki.

"I haven't been to Chinatown for Spring Festival for many years," said 55-year-old Zhao Aiwen, who has lived in Japan for more than 30 years.

"I tend to enjoy the quieter aspects and traditions of Spring Festival, such as family reunions, cleaning and refreshing the house, and offering red envelopes to bless the children with hope and luck."

Sydney street parties to draw crowds

By Karl Wilson in Sydney

The Australian city of Sydney boasts one of the biggest Lunar New Year festivals outside Asia.

More than 1.4 million people are expected to welcome the Year of the Pig during the city's celebrations, which will begin on Feb 1 and run until Feb 10.

In the vibrant and bustling Chinatown quarter alone－the heart of the festivities－around 300,000 visitors are expected to delight in the sights and sounds of traditional Chinese culture while welcoming in a new year full of prosperity and good luck.

Sydney Lunar Festival will welcome tourists from around the world, as well as Sydney's multicultural Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and Malaysian communities, to celebrate the Year of the Pig.

The festivities are scattered around Sydney, from Chinatown and Darling Harbour in the center, to the northeastern suburb of Chatswood and Cabramatta in Sydney's southwest.

What was once a celebration confined to Sydney's Chinatown has now become a major event on the city's social calendar and is enjoyed by all Sydney residents.

Dave Platter, global public relations and communications director for Juwai.com, a Chinese website for buyers of overseas property, said: "Most of my colleagues are Chinese and in Shanghai. At this time of year, all of them are sharing their plans on WeChat. What they will do, where they will go, and which family members they will visit.

"It makes me a bit jealous, really. They are all taking a week off and spending time with family, while my parents and siblings are far away. We don't even get a long lunch!

"I'm an Anglo married to an Australian woman of Chinese descent, so the traditions of Chinese New Year are new to me. For both of us, we have had to learn from friends and the media how to celebrate. We think Chinese New Year is what you make it. It's a time of hope and promise, when you cherish family and take stock of where you are going in life.

"I want my kids to know their Chinese roots because it's a part of who they are. … It seems so alien to them. I just hope that one day they'll realize that not only are they American and Australian, but they are also Chinese."

William Lin, who runs as a computer repair business in Sydney, emigrated to Australia from Guangzhou, Guangdong province in 1989.

For Lin and his Australian-born family, the Lunar New Year is still a big event.

"Although we are Australian, we still maintain some of our traditions," he said.

He said the Lunar New Year "is still important to us and I want the kids to feel an attachment to their heritage".

Antwerp revelries bring communities together

By Chen Weihua in Brussels

Antwerp, the most populous city in Belgium, was immersed in Chinese Lunar New Year festivities on Saturday, Feb 2.

About 2,000 performers from across Belgium staged a grand parade that included 22 groups of lion dancers, waist drum players, qigong and tai chi practitioners, fashion teams wearing qipao and other traditional Chinese costumes, and people dressed as pandas and golden pig figures.

Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Cao Zhongming and Antwerp Mayor Bart de Wever "dotted", or painted on, the lion's eyes in a Chinese tradition that kicks off the parade marking the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 5 this year.

The performers came not only from Chinese communities in Belgium, but were formed from a diverse group that also included the local Belgian community. For example, the Belgian Health Qigong Federation has many members who are not from a Chinese background.

Xiang Shihai, the cultural attache at the Chinese embassy in Brussels, described the qigong performances as "thrilling".

The Antwerp parade was the fourth Chinese New Year Parade in Belgium. The previous three were held in Brussels and the two smaller, scenic cities of Dinant and Durbuy, drawing huge crowds of spectators.

After the Feb 2 afternoon parade, an art troupe from the Shanghai Theatre Academy presented a show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Its program featured dances, Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, and flute and guzheng (Chinese zither) performances. The Shanghai troupe will also travel to Liege for a performance on Feb 5.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the sister city ties between Antwerp and Shanghai.

Ge Yiyou, director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Brussels, said the dancers and singers from Shanghai will also stage a show at the center on Feb 4, along with many other interactive events organized by Chinese artists, such as writing Spring Festival couplets and making clay figurines.

A Chinese Lunar New Year cultural show will be unveiled that night and last until March 29.

On Jan 29, Tan Dun, a prominent Chinese-American composer and conductor, led a concert performed by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra at Flagey, a venue in Brussels.

On Jan 21, the Suzhou Chinese Orchestra held a concert at the Bozar Center for Fine Arts, also in Brussels.

New York to host colorful cultural parades, performances

By Hong Xiao in New York

As New York is home to the largest Chinese population outside Asia, Lunar New Year has long been one of the most popular festivals for the whole city to celebrate together.

Boisterous and colorful parades held in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn are always among the most anticipated events.

Firecrackers, red and gold confetti, decorated floats, stunning outfits, lion dances, martial art performances and more, make the citywide street party the holiday's biggest gala.

The New York Philharmonic's annual Lunar New Year concert will return to the Lincoln Center.

"To celebrate Chinese New Year in New York, to ring out the old year and ring in the New Year with an audience in the West by performing my new work, it's so meaningful," said Tan Dun, a Chinese-American composer and conductor.

A concert series called Chinese New Year Spectacular will also return to Carnegie Hall this year, which will feature Chinese and United States musicians.

Charles Sullivan, who has promoted the concert during its five years, told China Daily he hopes to take this advantage and through more efforts to "further nurture the friendship of America with China through the performing arts".

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is the largest art museum in the US, will host two performances on traditional Chinese zithers, to "celebrate the Lunar New Year with the feeling of sonic scenery", according to its website.

Embracing diversity and inclusiveness, New York public school students have had an extra public holiday to observe Lunar New Year since 2016.

To help more children learn about traditional Chinese culture, local organizations will host family festivals, featuring music, crafts, dumpling making and storytelling.

During the Chinese New Year celebrations in New York, Westerners can wonder at the splendor of ancient Eastern culture, and Chinese people can forget they are in a foreign land.

"I see Chinese culture finally taking root in the US and it will not leave, because many of the innovations we have and the cultural glamour of Chinese people are adored here in the US," said Michael Daly, a New York resident.