Chinese New Year 2015
Happy Lunar New Year! Reuters

Chinese New Year celebrations are occurring around the world on Thursday. To celebrate the Year of the Sheep, Slooh has a special Lunar New Year live stream featuring views of the new moon from observatories in Dubai, the Canary Islands and Chile. The broadcast will include a discussion on the traditions and culture of Chinese New Year as well as the significance of the moon and zodiac signs. The Chinese New Year live stream begins at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday.

"Before this modern era where the Moon is scarcely visible against city lights and irrelevant to our everyday lives, moonlight often made a life-or-death difference as to whether we dared venture out at night. Its importance was such that calendars, seasons, and holidays like Easter revolved around lunar phases. At Slooh, we will celebrate this vestigial legacy of the Moon's importance by exploring the cultural, scientific, and mythological wonders of the New Moon," Slooh astronomer Bob Berman said in a statement.

Since Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, the actual date differs each year. A lunar month is based on the time between new moons, on average 29.53 days, according to Helmer Aslaksen, an associate professor of mathematics at the National University of Singapore. "The Chinese calendar is a combination of two calendars, a solar calendar and a lunisolar calendar. The solar calendar starts at the December solstice and follows the 24 jié qì [solar terms]. This is traditionally called the farmer’s calendar. The lunisolar calendar starts at Chinese New Year and consists of 12 or 13 months," Aslaksen explains.

The Chinese New Year falls between Jan. 21 and Feb. 21 and there are two general ways of determining the date. The first way is the second new moon after the December solstice. Another way to determine the Lunar New Year is to use the new moon closest to the spring equinox. This year, the new moon was visible beginning Wednesday, Feb. 18.

While a lot of people in the U.S. watch the Super Bowl, almost everyone in China watches the "Spring Festival Gala," according to CNN. Last year's broadcast drew 700 million viewers. CCTV has a "2015 Spring Festival Gala" review featuring performances and acrobatics here.

The Chinese New Year live stream can be viewed below. Before the broadcast, read a guide of traditional Lunar New Year food as well as facts and sayings.