Lunar New Year in pictures

Hundreds of millions of people around the world have been celebrating the Lunar New Year.

In China, a huge fireworks display in Beijing marked the first day of the Year of the Monkey, one of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac.

Celebrations include feasting, visiting temples, and spending time with family and friends.

Fireworks light up the Beijing sky to ring in the year of the monkey

Worshippers crowd in Hong Kong's Wong Tai Sin Temple to make their offerings

There are fireworks across all Chinese cities, like here Dandong on the border with North Korea

Devotees place incense sticks in urns in Kwang Im Tho temple in Singapore

A man performs a dragon dance in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon

As far afield as Glasgow in Scotland, members of the Chinese community dress in traditional costumes

Even with their temple flooded, these Chinese Indonesians in Surabaya, East Java, came together to pray

In the Philippines, Manila's Chinatown pulls all stops to put on a great show

A worshipper dressed as a monkey at the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong

Kuala Lumpur's Thean Hou temple in Malaysia is brightly lit with lanterns and decorations

A crowd in Brussels curiously inspecting their exotic visitors...

... while a very similar beast entertained the crowds in Kandal, Cambodia.

No monkeying around - New York rings in the new year in grand style