Most people celebrate Chinese New Year by watching a fireworks display or a lion dance.

However, this performer decided to welcome the New Year by inserting a live snake through his nose before pulling it out of his mouth during a performance at the Ditan Temple Fair celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year in Beijing on February 9, 2013.

The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, marks the start of the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese zodiac.

Various snake toys were on sale at the fair in Ditan Park, which was attended by thousands of families.