The Year of the Rooster begins on Saturday, Jan. 28. The Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, follows the lunar calendar, meaning it falls on a different day each year according to the phases of the moon. It typically falls in January or February.

The ‘Rooster’ is the tenth of twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac. Each year is characterized by a different animal in the 12-year cycle until it repeats. The next year of the Rooster will be 2029.  Those born in 2017, 2005, 1993, and 1981 are Roosters, who tend to be observant, hardworking, resourceful and courageous but vain and boastful. The Year of the Rooster is said to be the unluckiest for Roosters.

Many families celebrate Chinese New Year traditions, including a dinner with extended family, giving or receiving red envelopes, lighting firecrackers, and decorating for the new year.

“Everyone engages in routine traditions – eating niangao [Chinese rice cakes], forming a dumpling assembly line, handing out red packets of money, and wishing each other wealth and prosperity in the upcoming year,” stated Annie Cao, 11.

These ‘red packets of money’ are a Chinese tradition where working adults gift children and elderly with red envelopes filled with money. “Chinese New Year is my favorite holiday because it’s lowkey the only holiday my parents care about. We cook a ton of food and I make bank every new year because I get money from all my grandparents and aunts and uncles,” said Brittany Zheng, 11.

Foods often eaten for the celebration include fish, dumplings, spring rolls and sweet rice cakes. These hold symbolic meaning for good fortune and health for the upcoming year.

“There’s a sense of unity in the attempt to preserve a future that thrives half a world away,” noted Cao.

Happy New Year, Patriots! To Roosters, good luck!