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 one 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 12 animals had a race. The first year was named after the rat, the winner. The other 11 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.
对于全世界的华人来说，中国的新年是最重要的节日。人们也称它为春节或农历新年。公历春节的确切日期每年都在变化。但是春节一般都在1月1日到2月19日之间。
在农历中，每年都有一个生肖。这些生肖是鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗和猪。据传说，这十二个动物举行了一次赛跑，第一年就以获胜者鼠命名，其他11年就根据动物们到达终点的顺序命名。聪明的鼠跳在牛背上，在最后时刻跳过牛的头顶第一个到达终点！
中国人相信在某一年出生的人具有这一年生肖的一些特征