Celebrants of the lunar New Year participate in the Lion Dance, a raucous pantomime that dates back to the seventh century. A masked performer teases a vibrantly painted papier-mâché lion which rears its head, roars, snaps its jaws, and charges in rage.

Originally intended to help expel demons, the ceremony is now celebrated annually on the first day of the year’s first lunar month as the Spring Festival. In 2007, it falls on February 18.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the National Geographic book Journey Into China, 1982)