With the Chinese New Year celebrations taking place today, the Daily Echo takes a look at the event through the years in Hampshire.

The year of the dog begins on February 16, 2018, and streets, precincts, halls, restaurants and homes across the globe will no doubt be full of colour and joviality to mark the occasion.

Those born on the year of the dog enjoy the lucky numbers three, four and nine; the lucky colours red, green and blue; and the lucky flowers rose, cymbidium and orchids.

One picture from the Daily Echo archives shows the ushering in of the Year of the Pig in 1983, when a traditional Chinese lion dance and displays of martial arts entertained the crowds in Above Bar, Southampton. Many watched the colourful troupe as it wound its way around the precinct to the sound of beating drums and crashing symbols.

An image from 1987 shows the late former Southampton mayor Jack Candy painting the eye of the lion in Guildhall Square. This was in preparation for the upcoming Year of the Rabbit.

Another photograph shows when a lion dance took place against the backdrop of the Buttercross, Winchester - just a lion’s roar from the Cathedral. The year was 1988 and the impending year was that of the dragon.