The Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, is a traditional Asian celebration that has been observed in for thousands of years. Every winter, Asian communities around the world ring in the Lunar New Year with carnivals, food, family gatherings, parades and more.

To welcome the year of the snake, Tet Fest celebrates with authentic food, music and dances. From Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in the Village de L'Est of New Orleans East, the state's largest Vietnamese community, transforms into a culinary wonderland, offering traditional fare like pandan waffles and pho.

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.

Many Chinese who work in bigger cities return home during the eight-day national holiday in what is described as the world's biggest annual movement of humanity.