The traditional Chinese calendar is known as the Agricultural Calendar (Nongli in Chinese), as the calendar divides the year into seasons for agriculture, which is the principal economy of the country in the ancient China. Even today, it still has the great significance to many Chinese people.
And according to the agricultural calendar culture, Chinese people have their unique way of daily life. They created the 24 solar terms system to remark the activities in agriculture. From the names of these solar terms, farmers can immediately know what should do during this period.
They also divided years into 12 kinds based on the 12 Animal Cycle. It is said that the culture in notion is the culture in the world. The unique 12 Animal Cycle is applied not only to the Chinese but also to the people all over the world. Every one can find his or her animal mascot based on the year they came to the world.