Tomorrow is the start of the Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival. This festival starts on the first day of the first lunar month (on the Chinese calendar) and it ends on the fifteenth day of this month. This period is traditionally full of celebrations, family visits, special foods and fireworks. It’s one of the more important Chinese festivals and everybody will take the time to celebrate, especially during the first three days of the festival.

This time is obviously not the best for arranging meetings and trying to make business deals. Also travelling within China is not recommended since many Chinese will go back to their hometown and every form of public transportation will be overloaded with families and bags full of presents and food. The best option is probably to stay where you are and try to see some of the local festivities such as fireworks and dragon dances.

And what about those rats?
The traditional Chinese calendar is a lunisolar one, which means that elements from the lunar and the solar calendar are incorporated. In daily life, the Chinese use the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese calendar is used for traditional festivals, such as Spring festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. Every year in China corresponds with a sign of the Chinese zodiac. This year will be the year of the rat and it will last from February 7, 2008 until January 26, 2009. The rat is the first animal of the Chinese zodiac, there are twelve animals in total. You know you are a rat when you are born in:

31 January 1900 - 18 February 1901
18 February 1912 - 5 February 1913
5 February 1924 - 24 January 1925
24 January 1936 - 10 February 1937
10 February 1948 - 28 January 1949
28 January 1960 - 14 February 1961
15 February 1972 - 2 February 1973
2 February 1984 - 19 February 1985
19 February 1996 - 6 February 1997

Curious what sign you are and what that says about you? Visit this Web site

Gong xi fa cai! (Wishing you prosperity) Xin nian kuai le! (Happy New Year)

(Source Wikipedia.org)