The Lunar New Year
The Lunar New Year is the beginning of a lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar year, whose months are moon cycles. The event is celebrated by numerous cultures in varying ways and at diverse dates. The Lunar New Year, as suggested by its name, is the celebration of a new year based on months dictated by the cycles of the Moon, not on the running of the Western organized months. The New Year falls on a different day each year, usually being celebrated somewhere between late January and the middle of February. The celebration is not unlike Western New Years, with the public holiday being observed across China, North and South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, and Vietnam. According to the lunar calendar, each of the 12 zodiac animals are assigned to a year on a rotating basis, starting with the rat and then running through the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.