Many Chinese citizens in the southeast are celebrating Chinese New Year today. 

Sue Tat from Grunthal Garden Restaurant says most of the festivities take place on New Year's Eve. 

"It really depends if you're southern Chinese or northern Chinese. Northern Chinese will have will have dumplings to celebrate and have family over for the gathering meal." Meanwhile in the south, "the southern Chinese will have like a deep fries perogy, something like that but it's on the sweet side so it's like a dessert."

Tat explains the year of the dog is one of the 12 years cycles of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac, related to the Chinese calendar.