Chinese New Year

In keeping with Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled in the future as to who was to head the cycle of years. The gods had been requested to determine and so they held a contest: whoever was to reach the other financial institution of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years in response to their finish.



All of the twelve animals gathered at the river financial institution and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's again, and gained the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up last. That's the reason the rat is the primary 12 months of the animal cycle, the ox second, and the pig last.


The Chinese language animal signs are a 12-year cycle used for dating the years. They represent a cyclical idea of time, reasonably than the Western linear concept of time. Within the Chinese calendar, the beginning of the yr falls someplace between late January and early February. The Chinese language have adopted the Western calendar since 1911, but the lunar calendar remains to be used for festive occasions such as the Chinese New Year. Many Chinese language calendars will print both the solar dates and the Chinese language lunar dates.