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Chinese New Year - Year of the Rat

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By Amy Sosbe 4 years ago

新年快乐 (Xīn nián kuài lè) That’s happy new year in Chinese!

January 25th 2020 marks the official start of the Chinese New Year, which ends on February 4th. The traditions surrounding the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) date back thousands of years and include putting up red decorations, lighting firecrackers, taboos like no cleaning or sweeping and myths telling the story of a monster named Nián.

Every year in China is represented by a different zodiac animal, there are 12 Chinese zodiac animals in total. Zodiac signs play an integral part in Chinese culture and can be used to determine the fortune of the year ahead, marriage compatibility, career choices, best times to have a baby, and many more. 2020 is the year of the rat in the Chinese Zodiac, which is the first of all zodiac animals.

The Rat represents the beginning of a new day and in Chinese culture rats were also seen as a sign of wealth and surplus.

In the spirit of celebration, we’re giving away 2 of our Woman’s Weekly patterns for FREE, rodent themed of course! We don’t have the fortune of having any rat patterns, but we feel a mouse, being a close relative, would make a good substitute. Plus these two patterns are just so sweet!


Download your FREE PDF - Print at Home patterns here:

FREE Knitted Mouse Jumper

FREE Knitted Mouse Toy

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Knitting!

Posted in: Best patternsNews