The festival will see members of the Chinese community across the world welcome the 2020 Year of the Rat, decorating their homes in the lucky colour red and attending spectacular parades as they wish for a happy and prosperous year ahead.

This year, the first day of the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar Near Year, falls on Saturday 25 January. The day on which the celebration occurs on the Gregorian calendar varies on an annual basis, as its date is determined by the lunisolar Chinese calendar.

The festivities will last for just over a fortnight, culminating with the Lantern Festival on Saturday 8 February. The Lantern Festival, otherwise known as the Spring Spring Lantern Festival, begins on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The arrival of the 2020 Chinese New Year marks the beginning of the Year of the Rat.

The Rat is the first of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. The Rat tricked the Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived at the finish line, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox, becoming first.

The Rat is also associated with the Earthly Branch (地支—dì zhī) Zi (子) and the midnight hours. In the terms of yin and yang (阴阳—yīn yáng), the Rat is yang and represents the beginning of a new day.

In Chinese culture, rats were seen as a sign of wealth and surplus. Because of their reproduction rate, married couples also prayed to them for children.

As rats are known for reproducing large numbers of offspring, they are also perceived as being symbolic of fertility.People whose birth dates occurred in the Year of the Rat include those born in 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 and 2008.