Chinese New Year Family Day celebrated in Washington D.C.

A Chinese New Year Family Day was jointly hosted by the Chinese embassy and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. Jan. 25 to celebrate the coming Chinese New Year.

The Family Day was kicked off by China's Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai, who gave the finishing touch to a lion costume.

Local Chinese societies performed lion dances and traditional Chinese music for the audience. The Smithsonian Museum also invited folk artists from China to demonstrate such traditional Chinese crafts as calligraphy, paper cutting, mud sculpting, and traditional Chinese painting.

Approximately 2,000 visitors brushed aside the freezing cold weather to attend the Family Day, according to organizers of the event.