This week’s new moon, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, will signal the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which this year is called the "Year of the Snake."

Celebrated across Asia and beyond, it marks the start of a new year based on the cycles of the moon rather than the Gregorian calendar, when the majority of the United States and

It's a complex holiday with much symbolism crammed into days of festivities filled with material abundance, but here's how to make sense of this millennia-old custom as the Green Bay area hosts its own Lunar New Year activities.