The Chinese New Year is a 15-day celebration of family, food and intriguing traditions dating back to 2600BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly one, with the start of the lunar year being based on the cycles of the moon. Because of this, the beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. This year it fell on Jan. 26 and will conclude on Feb. 9.
The Chinese Lunar Calendar names each of the twelve years after an animal. It is said that the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he departed from earth. Only 12 came to bid him farewell and as a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a profound influence on personality.
If you were born in 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1985, 1997 or 2009, this is your year.
People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to anger easily. Ox people are mentally and physically alert, easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed. They are most compatible with Snake, Rooster, and a Rat.
Famous oxen include Barack Obama, Catherine Freeman, Heather Locklear, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Juliette Lewis, Margaret Thatcher, Meg Ryan, Meryl Streep, Princess Diana, Vivien Leigh and George Clooney.