Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people all over the world. It is also called the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year. The exact date of the Spring Festival on the Western calendar changes from year to year. However, Chinese New Year takes place between January 1 and February 19. On the Chinese calendar every year has an animal's name. These animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. A Chinese legend says that these twelve animals had a race. The first year was named after the rat, the winner. The other eleven years were named according to the order in which the animals arrived in the race. The clever rat jumped onto the ox's back, and then at the end jumped over the ox's head to arrive first! The Chinese believe that a person born in a particular year has some of the characteristics of that animal.