The first day of the lunar year is Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year's Day. Each year of the twelve-year cycle of Earthly Branches is generally referred to by its representative animal, with Lunar New Year's Day marking the start of each Animal Year. For instance, 2004 is the Year of the Monkey, the year jiashen according to the numbering of the traditional Chinese calendar. The Year of the Monkey ends on February 8, 2004 (the 30th day of the 12th lunar month of the year jiashen). The following day, Lunar New Year's Day, marks the start of the year yiyou, the Year of the Rooster.

 Sayings About Rat

A little mouse ran up a lamp

to steal some oil and couldn't get down

It squeaked for its grandma

But she wouldn't come

So down it fell, clattering all the way

The lively and loveable mouse in this Beijing nursery rhyme is a great favorite of Chinese children. It is said that every year around the Lunar New Year, the mice send their daughters off to get married. A traditional New Year's painting from Sichuan Province, "Mouse Takes a Wife," shows a great wedding procession of mice banging gongs and hitting drums. The mouse bride rides in a traditional bridal sedan chair, while the mouse groom sits astride a toad, decked out in red and green finery with a big smile on his face. A crowd of excited mouse friends surrounds them, cheering and hugging each other and adding their delight to the festive New Year's occasion.

The characteristic behavior and appearance of mice and rats have given rise to many expressive Chinese idioms. The belief that mice have poor eyesight is the basis of the expression "A mouse can't see past its whiskers," describing a person with a limited outlook. "Rat belly, chicken guts" is a metaphor for someone who is intolerant and narrow-minded. Imagine the discomfort of a rat stuck inside a bellows, buffeted by air being sucked in from one end and expelled out the other. People who have to resolve conflicting complaints often refer to this image, wryly saying that they are "Trapped like a rat in a bellows, catching flak from both ends."

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