Chinese New Year

　　春節

　　Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people all over the world. It is also called the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year.

　　對于全世界的華人來說，中國的新年是最重要的節日。人們也稱它為春節或農歷新年。

　　The exact date of the Spring Festival on the Western calendar changes from year to year. However, Chinese New Year takes place between January 1 and February 19.

　　公歷春節的確切日期每年都在變化。但是春節一般都在1月1日到2月19日之間。

　　On the Chinese calendar every year has an animal's name.

　　在農歷中，每年都有一個生肖。

　　These animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

　　這些生肖是鼠、牛、虎、兔、龍、蛇、馬、羊、猴、雞、狗和豬。

　　A Chinese legend says that these twelve animals had a race. The first year was named after the rat, the winner. The other eleven years were named according to the order in which the animals arrived in the race. The clever rat jumped onto the ox's back, and then at the end jumped over the ox's head to arrive first!

　　據傳說，這十二個動物舉行了一次賽跑，第一年就以獲勝者鼠命名，其他十一年就根據動物們到達終點的順序命名。聰明的鼠跳在牛背上，在最后時刻跳過牛的頭頂第一個到達終點!

　　The Chinese believe that a person born in a particular year has some of the characteristics of that animal.

　　中國人相信在某一年出生的人具有這一年生肖的一些特征。

　　單詞注解：

　　lunar 月(亮)的

　　exact 確切的

　　calendar 日歷

　　rat 鼠

　　ox 公牛

　　rabbit 兔子

　　ram 公羊

　　rooster 公雞

　　legend 傳說

　　name after 按....命名

　　particular 特殊的

　　characteristic 特征