Lunar New Year - Year of the Rat

The Zodiacal Rat is the first of the repeating 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese Zodiac,constituting part of the Chinese Calendar system (with similar systems in use elsewhere). The Year of the Rat in standard Chinese is (Chinese: 鼠年; Pinyin: shǔ​nián); the rat is associated with the first branch of the Earthly Branch Symbol