There are three ways to name a Chinese year:

1. By an animal (like a mscot). 2008 is known as the Year of the Rat. 2009 is the Year of the Ox. 2010 is the Year of the Tiger There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are repeated every 12 years.
2. By its Formal Name (Stem-Branch). 2011 is the year of XinMao .

2010 is the year of Geng Yin .

2009 is the Year of Ji Chou.

3. In the 'Stem-Branch' system, the years are counted in 60-year Cycles, so that the Name of the Year is repeated every 60 years. 2010 is the11-th year in the current 60-year Cycle. 2009 is the 10-th year in the current 60-year Cycle. A "Cycle" is analogous to a "century" in the International Calendar system which is 100 years long.
4. 2010 is Year 4707 in the Chinese Caledar. 2009 is Year 4706 in the Chinese Calendar.

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Winter Fiesta," the literal translation of the Chinese name (Pinyin: Ch nji), since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zh ngyu) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chx ( ) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "'Lunar New Year".

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors. These include Korean (Seollal), Bhutanese (Losar), and Vietnamese cultures. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone. Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning in AD 2012 the "Chinese Year" 4710, 4709, or 4649.

Mythology
According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian (Chinese: ; pinyin: Nin). Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the colour red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount

Public holiday
Chinese New Year is observed as a public holiday in a number of countries and territories where a sizable Chinese population resides. Since Chinese New Year falls on different dates on the Gregorian calendar every year on different days of the week, some of these governments opt to shift working days in order to accommodate a longer public holiday. Also like many other countries in the world, a statutory holiday is added on the following work day when the New Year falls on a weekend.

The History of Chinese New Year

The most important holiday for Chinese around the world is undoubtedly Chinese New Year -and it all started out of fear. The centuries-old legend on the origins of the New Year celebration varies from teller to teller, but they all include a story of a terrible mythical monster who preyed on villagers. The lion-like monsters name was Nian ( ) which is also the Chinese word for year." The stories also all include a wise old man who counsels the villagers to ward off the evil Nian by making loud noises with drums and firecrackers and hanging red paper cutouts and scrolls on their doors because for some reason, the Nian is scared of the color red. The villagers took the old mans advice and the Nian was conquered. On the anniversary of the date, the Chinese recognize the passing of the Nian known in Chinese as guo nian ( ), which is also synonymous with celebrating the new year. Based on the Lunar Calendar The date of Chinese New Year changes each year as it is based on the lunar calendar. While the western Gregorian calendar is based on the earths orbit around the sun, China and most Asian countries use the lunar calendar that is based on the moons orbit around the earth. Chinese New Year always falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Other Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam also celebrate new year using the lunar calendar. While both Buddhism and Daoism has unique customs during the New Year, Chinese New Year is far older than both religions. Like many agrarian societies, Chinese New Year is rooted in much a celebration of spring just like Easter or Passover. Depending on where rice is grown in China, the rice season lasts from roughly May to September (north China), April to October (Yangtze River Valley), or March to November (Southeast China). The New Year was likely the start of preparations for a new growing season.

Spring cleaning is a common theme during this time, as many Chinese will clean out their homes during the holiday. The New Year celebration could even have been a way to break up the boredom of the long winter months. Traditional Customs On this day, families travel long distances to meet and make merry. Known as the "Spring movement" or Chunyun ( ), a great migration takes place in China during this period where many travelers brave the crowds to get to their hometowns. Though the holiday is only about a week-long, traditionally it is a 15-day holiday during which firecrackers are lit, drums can be heard on the streets, red lanterns glow at night, and red paper cutouts and calligraphy hangings are hung on doors. Celebrations conclude on the 15th day with the Lantern Festival. Children are also given red envelopes with money inside. Many cities around the world also hold New Year parades complete with a dragon and lion dance. Food is an important component to New Year. Traditional foods include nian gao or sweet sticky rice cake and savory dumplings - which are round and symbolize never-ending wealth. For more about Chinese New Year foods visit About.coms Chinese Food site. Chinese New Year vs. Spring Festival In China, New Year celebrations are synonymous with Spring Festival ( is typically a week-long celebration. or ch n ji) and it

The origins of this renaming from "Chinese New Year" to Spring Festival is fascinating and not widely known. In 1912, the newly-formed Chinese Republic, governed by the Nationalist party, renamed the traditional holiday to Spring Festival in order to get the Chinese people to transition to celebrating the Western New Year instead. During this period, many Chinese intellectuals felt that modernization meant doing all the things as the West did. When the Communists took over power in 1949, the celebration of New Year was viewed as feudalistic and seeped in religion -- not proper for an atheist China. Under the Chinese Communist Party, there were some years where New Year was not celebrated at all. By the late 1980s, however, as China began liberalizing its economy, Spring Festival celebrations became big business. China Central Television has held an annual New Years Gala since 1982, which was and is still televised across the country and now via satellite to the world.

A few years ago, the government announced that it would shorten its holiday system. The May Day holiday would be shortened from a week to one day and the National Day holiday would be made two days instead of a week. In their place, more traditional holidays such as the MidAutumn Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day might be implemented. The only week-long holiday that was maintained is Spring Festival. Perhaps even today, several millennia after the first New Year, the fear of the Nian is alive and well.