Among China’s traditional holidays and celebrations, none ranks higher in importance than the Lunar New Year (農曆新年). Also known as the Spring Festival (春節), or simply Chinese New Year, it marks the beginning of the year according to the traditional lunar calendar.

While most of us celebrated the New Year on Jan. 1, more than a billion people across the world are starting their celebration today with the arrival of the Lunar New Year. According to the Chinese calendar,

The Lunar New Year marks the beginning of spring and the new year on something called the lunisolar calendar. That's a type of calendar historically used in China that uses the moon and the sun to determine dates.