LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Amid dancing dragons, the first 33-cent postage stamp was unveiled Tuesday.

The stamp depicts the Chinese New Year, which begins February 16 and ushers in the Year of the Hare.

The Postal Service will issue 51 million of the stamps, which were introduced with a display of Chinese New Year parade dragons in Los Angeles.

The hare stamp is the seventh design in the Lunar New Year series, which began with a Year of the Rooster stamp in 1992.

The 33-cent rate goes into effect on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Postmaster General William Henderson said Tuesday the Postal Service handled 16.7 billion pieces of mail during the holiday season, a record. That was a 3 percent increase over a year earlier, he said.