Lunar calender is different from Solar Calender. It is based on the cycle of the moon instead of the sun. Lunar calender is very popular in some South East Asia countries including Vietnam and China. In fact the Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in these countries, similar to Christmas and New Year holiday in the US.
In Vietnam, we call it Tết, unless something very bad happens, everyone will be really happy when Tết comes. It is the time for employees to be rewarded with bonus for their hard work all year long, for students to be lazy, for everyone to have a break and go shopping, for young children to get small [sometimes not small] amount of money called "lì xì" from the adults, for family members to gather in a traditional dinner called "Tất Niên" right before the night of Tết, with "Bánh Chưng", with Spring Roll, with "xôi", with "giò", with "chả"...This Tết would be on Feb 07, 2008.
In the Lunar calender, we use 12 animal zodiacs to represent different years. These 12 animals are, in ordered: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. These zodiacs go in circle, so every 12 years you would come back to the same animal. The zodiacs is also represent the babies which are born in that year. For example, I was born in 1983 and therefore I am represented by a Pig (a very cute Pig actually) :)
The coming Lunar year will be represented by a Rat. And here are some funny pictures of them:
Pictures taken from VnExpress: http://www.vnexpress.net/Vietnam/Khoa-hoc/2008/02/3B9FEFA3/
