Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is celebrated over multiple days and marks the beginning of the coming 12 months on the traditional lunisolar calendar.
The occasion is observed by many people of Chinese descent and is also commemorated in other countries across Asia, including South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.
Here, Sky News takes a look at this year’s celebrations – and how it’s significant.
What is this year’s Zodiac animal?
Ending the year of the Water Tiger, which is seen as a symbol of strength, braveness and exorcising evils, the 2023 Lunar New Year is set to welcome the Year of the Rabbit.
The Rabbit is the fourth animal in the zodiac sequence of 12, and is seen as the luckiest.
People born in the year of the Rabbit are believed to be vigilant, witty, quick-minded and ingenious.
The animal is also said to signify mercy, elegance and beauty.
Image: Fireworks are seen behind a neon-light rabbit celebrating the Spring Festival. Pic: AP
In the Chinese five-element theory, it is believed that each zodiac sign has one of the five elements: Metal, wood, water, fire or earth.
These elements rotate for each year on which the sign falls, meaning they come every 60 years.
This year is the Water Rabbit, which last came in 1903 and 1963.
There are five types of rabbit, each said to have different characteristics – and those associated with the Water Rabbit suggest believers in the Chinese lunisolar calendar who were born in those years may not be entirely pleased.
The traits linked to each of the rabbits are:
Water Rabbit: Gentle and amicable, but has a weak mindset
Wood Rabbit: Clever and quick-witted, but selfish
Fire Rabbit: Broad-minded, smart and flexible
Earth Rabbit: Straightforward, ambitious and hard-working
Metal Rabbit: Kind-hearted, lively and enthusiastic
Image: Lunar New Year decorations put up in Kuala Lumpur shopping mall. Pic: AP
When is the 2023 Lunar New Year?
The Year of the Tiger ends on 21 January and the Year of the Rabbit begins the following day, on 22 January.
How Chinese New Year celebrated?
One of the most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, the Lunar New Year kicks off a 15-day festival of celebrations in China and among Chinese communities around the world.
Commonly known in China as Spring Festival, people in the country get seven consecutive days off each year to mark the occasion.
During this period, there are a number of traditions.
Image: The Lion dance is a traditional dance in Chinese culture. Pic: AP
Festivities get under way with a lion dance, in which performers mimic a lion’s movements while in a lion costume – with the animal symbolising power, wisdom, and superiority.
The performers move with the rhythm of the beating of the drum, cymbals and gong. The loud sounds are intended to scare away evil spirits and welcome the lion to bring in good fortune.
A dragon dance is the highlight of the celebration in many areas, as the dragon is a symbol of good fortune.
Image: A Taiwanese woman lights a candle to mark the new year. Pic: AP
Other traditions include people cleaning their homes thoroughly to rid the household of bad luck.
Some eat specially prepared foods on certain days during the celebrations, which are also supposed to bring good luck.
Image: Lucky foods to eat during Chinese New Year. Pic: iStock
They include dumplings, which are often eaten on Chinese New Year’s eve and symbolise wealth, and sweet rice balls – a symbol of family togetherness.
Image: Nagasaki Lantern Festival in Japan. Pic: AP
The last event of the celebration is called the Lantern Festival, during which people hang glowing lanterns in temples or carry them during parades.
Image: China celebrates the Lunar New Year with molten iron fireworks. Pic: AP
The festival also involves people lighting candles while praying in temples.
Firework displays take place that feature Datiehua folk art – which sees burning hot iron water sprayed to form a display of fireworks. The art originated in the Song Dynasty and is now part of cultural heritage across the country.
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamasoperatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
Image: A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Image: Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
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The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
Image: An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
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“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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10:42
Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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2:36
‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
Israel’s prime minister has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement at a White House dinner, and the US president appeared pleased by the gesture.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, and one country and one region after the other,” Mr Netanyahu said as he presented the US leader with a nominating letter.
Mr Trump took credit for brokering a ceasefire in Iran and Israel’s “12-day war” last month, announcing it on Truth Social, and the truce appears to be holding.
The president also claimed US strikes had obliterated Iran’s purported nuclear weapons programme and that it now wants to restart talks.
“We have scheduled Iran talks, and they want to,” Mr Trump told reporters. “They want to talk.”
Iran hasn’t confirmed the move, but its president told American broadcaster Tucker Carlson his country would be willing to resume cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
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But Masoud Pezeshkian said full access to nuclear sites wasn’t yet possible as US strikes had damaged them “severely”.
Away from Iran, fighting continues in Gaza and Ukraine.
Mr Trump famously boasted before his second stint in the White House that he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours.
Critics also claiming President Putin is ‘playing’ his US counterpart and has no intention of stopping the fighting.
However, President Trump could try to take credit for progress in Gaza if – as he’s suggested – an agreement on a 60-day ceasefire is able to get across the line this week.
Indirect negotiations with Hamas are taking place that could lead to the release of some of the remaining 50 Israeli hostages and see a surge in aid to Gaza.
America’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is to travel to Qatar this week to try to seal the agreement.
Whether it could open a path to a complete end to the war remains uncertain, with the two sides criteria for peace still far apart.
President Netanyahu has said Hamas must surrender, disarm and leave Gaza – something it refuses to do.
Mr Netanyahu also told reporters on Monday that the US and Israel were working with other countries who would give Palestinians “a better future” – and indicated those in Gaza could move elsewhere.
“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave,” he added.