Happy Chinese New Year!
Today marks the new lunar year, 4703 by the Chinese calendar. The year is balled bingxu, based on the ’stem-branch’ system used in China, which uses 60-year cycles composed of five 12-year ones. Each year in the 12 year cycle is named after an animal from the Chinese zodiac, while each cycle is named after an element. So, this year will be the year of the Fire Dog (hotdog), the 7th year in the current 60-year cycle. Now go set off some fireworks.