Today marks the beginning of Chinese New Year, the 15-day celebration in Asian cultures filled with gift-giving, family reunions, festivals, fireworks, and wishes of good luck and prosperity in the coming year.

In honor of 2012 being the Year Of The Dragon, author Neil Gaiman sent out a message to his Chinese friends with a drawing of what he says is a “wobbly dragon.”

Check out here below a photo Gaiman posted on his blog of himself holding up the drawing.

The American Gods author is currently working on the screenplay for a massive adaptation of the ancient Chinese tale, Journey to the West for one of China’s major television producers, Zhang Jizhong. Gaiman is also writing a non-fiction book about his own experiences visiting China, as well as a children’s picture book, Chu’s Day, about a baby panda who sneezes. Since none of Gaiman’s picture books are sold in Mainland China, because they are deemed as promoting disrespect for authority, the author said [via Collider] he specially wrote Chu’s Day so that he’d be able to have a picture book available in China that “still could have all of the things that are in my children’s picture books.”

For more details about this year’s Chinese New Year and for photos of celebrations of the holiday around the world, visit Daily Mail.

[Source: Neil Gaiman | Banner Image Credit: China Highlights]