CHINESE New Year is to be celebrated across Cumbria during a series of events.

On Saturday there will be events in Carlisle city centre, as well as across Cumbria.

Dr Val Yeung is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) Foundation Trust.

She said: “People will eat lots of food, enjoy fireworks, wear special clothes and hang lanterns to mark the occasion.

“Because it depends on the moon, the date of Chinese New Year actually changes each year, but it will always fall some time between January 21 and February 20.

“In Chinese tradition, each year is named after one of 12 animals, which feature in the Chinese zodiac – rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

“So the animals will have a year dedicated to them once every 12 years in a cycle. Before the festivities begin, people clean their homes really well to make them ready for the celebrations.

“Then, when New Year’s Day comes, there is a tradition not to pick up a broom, in case you sweep the good luck for the New Year out of the door.”

Dr Yeung added: “In China, schools and businesses can close for the first few days of the new year, so that everyone can spend time with their families.

“People enjoy eating lots of delicious food, including noodle soup, which traditionally brings luck for the year ahead.

“There will be parades and performances with people dressed in traditional clothes.

“Fireworks are also set off, because it is thought that noise and lights will scare away any evil spirits for the coming months. Adults might give red envelopes to children with money inside too.

“The festivities continue for two weeks, finishing with a special lantern festival, which signals the end of the New Year celebration period.”

On Saturday Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery will mark the beginning of the Chinese year of the rat, with activities between 10am and 4pm.

Among the festivities will be kung fu and acrobatic performances, drumming workshops, traditional Chinese crafts, storytelling and an 8ft panda called Pom Pom.

For 2020 the focus of Chinese zodiac tradition will be the rat for the first time since 2008.

Throughout the day visitors will get a first look at a major new exhibition at the museum, titled Treasures of China, a major new exhibition exploring almost 3,000 years of imperial culture.

Most of the collections for the exhibition – which will be open until April 26 – are on loan from the Oriental Museum at Durham University.

Although the rat is less loved in the west, in Chinese tradition the rat is the first among all zodiac animals.

A Chinese New Year parade will leave Tullie House at 1pm, making its way through the grounds of Carlisle Cathedral and into the city centre, before returning to Castle Street.