Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, is an annual event that marks the first day of a new year on the Lunar calendar, when there is the start of a new moon.
Traditionally, each year is named after one of 12 animals that feature in the Chinese zodiac, so each animal will have a year dedicated to them once every 12 years!
2021 is the year of the ox, the second animal in the Chinese zodiac.
You may be thinking, why second? Well, according to the myth, an important god called Jade Emperor organised a race for twelve animals: a pig, a dog, a monkey, a rooster, a snake, a horse, a rat, a sheep, a tiger, a dragon, a rabbit and an ox.
The emperor decided to name a year in the zodiac after each animal and used the race to determine the order each animal would be placed.
The cheeky rat asked the ox if it could sit on its head to cross the river and instead of saying thank you when they reached the other side, the rat made a dash for the finish line and beat the ox to first place!
Poor ox!