Looking up facts on the Chinese New Year has been fun and exciting to learn more about my little sister's culture. Although I do not believe in fortunes or horoscopes, the research I did on their holiday was very interesting. In the Chinese culture the people celebrate their New Year for 10 days. The concept of the New Year is that there is a 12-year cycle used for dating the years. The animals represent a cyclical concept of time. Here in America we have a linear concept of time. The Chinese lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon. According to the Chinese calendar, the beginning of the year falls somewhere between late January and early February. However, the Chinese now go by the Western calendar since 1911, but the lunar calendar is still used for celebrations and festive occasions such as the Chinese New Year. In many Chinese calendars you will find they will print both the solar dates and the Chinese lunar dates. A Chinese horoscope may predict that people born in the Year of the Monkey would be, "intelligent, witty and well liked”. The Chinese people think these horoscopes are amusing but not take them seriously.
In social functions the animal signs are used to finding out people's ages. People often ask what is his or her animal sign without directly asking how old a person may be. People generally will ask for animal signs not to find out a person's exact numerical age, but to simply know who is oldest at the gathering.
According to the zodiac chart, the rotating cycle of twelve animal signs was a folk method for naming the years in traditional China. The animal signs have an order and they repeat every twelve years.
The Chinese legend about the animals is the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was to head the cycle of years. A contest was held and it was agreed that whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish. The gods were asked to decide.
The twelve animals gathered at the riverbank and they jumped in. The ox did not know but the rat had jumped upon his back. Just as the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's back, therefore winning the race. The pig was very lazy and ended up last. This explains why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle and the ox second.