To observe the New Year, Canada Post will also issue a series of stamps.

What's special is that some of them will feature the upcoming Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon.

Lifestyles has talked to the designer and got a glimpse of the stamps in advance.

Canada Post will issue two stamps on Jan. 10 in celebration of the upcoming Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon.

Marking the forth release of a second 12-year Lunar New Year series, the new stamps include one domestic stamp and one international stamp.

On the domestic stamp was a black and powerful imperial five-toe dragon with scales decorated with gold foil, which was inspired by traditional Chinese paper-cutting.

According to Louis Fishauf, designer of the Dragon Year postage stamps, this is the year of the water dragon. So he incorporated the wave motif down at the bottom of the stamp to represent the idea of water.

SOUNDBITE :LOUISE FISHAUF, DESIGNER
"The dragon, of course, represents good luck as well, and dragon should be very powerful, and knowledgeable with the symbol of the emperor and imperial of China. And this dragon is a five-toe dragon, so this is an imperial dragon."

The international stamp is painted with the head of a roaring fire dragon, also decorated with gold foil vividly.

Both stamps are set in traditional Chinese red, representing good luck and happiness in Chinese culture.

It took Fishauf almost two years to finish the whole designing process.
According to him, the biggest challenge is not to complete the work itself, but to understand the essence of Chinese culture.

He did a lot of research and collected large amount of information. He even paid several visits to Chinatown in Toronto to know more about Chinese culture.

He also went to China in March, 2011 to get more inspirations.

SOUNDBITE: LOUISE FISHAUF, DESIGNER
"I went online, I went to Google, I went to，you know, some Chinese websites. I went to Chinatown here in Toronto. I bought some books,  I looked at some of the dragon motifs that were available in different products. And of course, when I went to China, I had my eyes open and I was always looking for Chinese iconography when I was there."

Each Chinese lunar year is named after a particular animal sign of the zodiac in a 12-year cycle. Canada Post began to release its first set of Chinese Lunar New Year stamps in 1997 with the Year of the Ox.

It's the second time for Fishauf to design the Chinese Lunar Year postage stamps for Canada Post. 8 years ago, he designed the Monkey Year stamp.

Fishauf hopes that the Dragon Year stamps will not only be recognized in Canadian market, but also win popularity around the world.

SOUNDBITE: LOUISE FISHAUF, DESIGNER
"I hope everyone enjoys the year of dragon stamp that Canada post does put out and wish all the viewers a healthy happy and prosperous year of the dragon."