Lunar New Year 2016:

Lunar New Year 2016: Facts, Dates, And Ancient Traditions

The Year of the Monkey starts Monday and festivities last for 15 days.

02/06/2016 07:00 am ET | Updated 8 hours ago

• Carol Kuruvilla Religion Associate Editor, The Huffington Post

The Lion Dance is performed as the Chinese New Year parade makes its way down H Street during the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown on February 22, 2015 in Washington, DC.

Lunar New Year falls on Monday and marks the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. Also called Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, the holiday is steeped in layers of myths and traditions. It is celebrated in many countries throughout Asia, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and in other parts of the world where people with Asian heritage have settled. It is a time for families to come together to eat good food and participate in cultural traditions. Here's what you need to know about this celebration. 

1. The date for Lunar New Year depends on the lunisolar calendar, which charts time based on the movements of both the moon and the sun. On the Gregorian calendar, the holiday will generally fall between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20. The festival reportedly traces its origins to the Shang Dynasty (between 1600 BC and 1100 BC), when people offered sacrifices to gods and ancestors to mark the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year. A legendary wild beast named Nien (or "year") was thought to attack people at the end of the old year. Villagers would use loud noises and bright lights to scare the creature away, a practice that slowly morphed into the Lunar New Year festivities.

2. While the Western zodiac system is divided into 12 months, the Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 years. Each year is associated with an animal: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. People are said to be influenced by the personality of the animal that rules their birth year. There are a number of legends that tell the story of how the years were ordered. In one legend, Buddha called all the animals of the world to him before he left the earth. The only ones that listened were these 12 animals, so Buddha named a year after each of them in the order that they arrived.

Another legend has the animals racing to see the Jade Emperor, which some Chinese traditions consider to be the ruler of Heaven. An old ox was in the lead, but he was a kind animal and when he saw a rat trying to cross a river, he stopped to help. But the rat was cunning -- just when they were about to climb onto the shore, the rat jumped off the ox and ran to the finish line, becoming the first animal in the cycle.

3. This is the Year of the Monkey, the ninth animal in the cycle. The monkey features prominently in many ancient Chinese legends. People born in the Year of the Monkey are said to be intelligent, clever, and gregarious, but also mischievous. They are skilled and smart, but shortcomings, like a quick temper and a touch of arrogance, tend to hold them back.