CHICAGO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) kicked off its celebration this weekend with multiple events to mark the forthcoming traditional Chinese Lunar New Year.

The celebration called "Special Event: Chinese New Year" was jointly launched on Saturday by Woman's Board of AIC and Chinese Fine Arts Society. Visitors can attend different events featuring art making, storytelling, music, games, and gallery tours in both English and Mandarin.

In the Ryan Learning Center of AIC, more than 100 American parents together with their children made 'dancing dragons' with paper and knitting wool, which means bringing good fortune to the families. In another family room, kids and their parents learned to make and decorate hongbao, which is a red envelope containing lucky money, as a gift for someone special in the Spring Festival.

In the Griffin Court of AIC, dozens of visitors crowded the small stage as the host Rammel Chan was telling stories about lineage and Chinese New Year celebrations, with performance artists the Lucky Trikes playing the accompanying music.

The most eye-catching performance was Chinese music by Brent Roman, who learned to play Chinese dulcimer in Beijing. In about 20 minutes, Roman showed his talent of preforming with five different instruments including Chinese flute and Chinese dulcimer. His wonderful performance was echoed by loud applause and cheers.

A mini tour was also created, as AIC asked visitors to look for the ancient Chinese character for spring and find the artworks symbolizing good fortune through the galleries.

AIC keeps a close relationship with China. It has organized many exhibitions of its collection from China, and held several events to introduce Chinese culture, such as Chinese lunar festival celebrations, including Lunar New Year and Mid Autumn Day.

Chicago is the first U.S. city to launch Chinese New Year celebration in the name of city government, and 2019 is the sixth year for Chicago to mark Chinese New Year.