Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival (or the Lunar New Year) , is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The festival proper begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Some families may invite a Lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Lunar New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. In this case it was at the shopping centre.