A woman takes part in a carnival parade as part of New Year's Eve festivities in San Jose, Costa Rica, 27 December 2023. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA/EFE)

Balis Chinese community perform the dragon dance during Chinese New Year called Ngelawang ceremony on January 21, 2023 in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. The Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia is celebrating Lunar New Year, as COVID-19 restrictions have been removed, it is traditionally a time for people to meet their relatives and take part in celebrations with families. In Indonesia, ethnic Chinese families visited temples to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit on January 22. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/Getty Images)

It’s a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, where two stallions fight over a female to ring the Chinese new year. And when it’s the Year of the Horse, the fights are considered to be even more significant. They’re held in small villages across southern China and have been condemned by animal rights groups, including Hong-Kong based Animals Asia. But those who participate in the events defend the fights and insist they take care of the animals.

People dressed as a “Chinese Dragon”, swim in water at the Beijing Aquarium on January 5, 2012 in Beijing, China. The new year in Chinese calendar is the year of Dragon which will fall on January 21, 2012. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

First graders attend a festive ceremony to mark the start of another school year in Slaviansk, September 1, 2014. September 1 marks the start of a new academic year for students in Ukraine. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Afghan children have ice cream during the Afghan New Year (Newroz) celebration in Kabul March 21, 2014. Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar which runs from the vernal equinox. The calendar takes as its start date the time when the Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 621 AD. The current Persian year is 1393. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

Dressed for the traditional New Year's festival known as “La Diablada”, in Pillaro, Ecuador, Friday, January 5, 2018. Thousands of singing and dancing devils take over the mountain town for six days of revelry in the streets. Local legend holds that anyone who adopts a costume for the celebration and wears it at the event six years in a row will have good luck. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

David Rawcliffe, house and monument steward at the National Trust's Chedworth Roman Villa cleans a Roman mosiac in the new environmentally-controlled conservation shelter on March 19, 2012 near Cirencester, England. Opened this month, the multi-million pound building allows visitors to walk on suspended walkways just above the 1600-year-old Roman floors and to see recently excavated mosaics not seen for 150 years, with more to be uncovered over the coming year. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)