Posted
on February 8, 2016
 |
| Los Angeles Chinese New Year parade |
Chinese
New Year is one of the world's biggest holidays. More than a billion
people celebrate it, all over the world, especially in Asian
countries such as China, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Macau, Thailand, Mauritius, North and South Korea,
Singapore, Vietnam, and Philippines. There are major celebrations in
cities on other continents – especially cities with large
populations of Chinese people. Here are just a few cities in the U.S.
with large Chinese New Year celebrations: San Francisco, New York
City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and Los Angeles.
This
year is called the Year of the Monkey. There are 12 signs of the
Chinese zodiac, and each year is assigned to one sign in a rotation.
Babies born in 2016 are born in the Year of the Monkey, as are people
who were born in 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956, and so on...
According
to ancient Chinese lore, people born in the Year of the Monkey are
supposed to be innovative, clever, and enthusiastic. But of course
this tradition is considered just-for-fun, these days – there's no
data that supports the idea that people born in particular years are
more innovative and clever than people born in other years!
To
learn more about Chinese New Year, check out these
earlier posts:
About
those monkeys...
All
monkeys are primates (a large group – what is referred to as “an
order” of mammals). But lemurs, tarsiers, chimpanzees, gorillas,
and we humans are also primates – and none of us are monkeys!
Almost
all monkeys have tails. Most New World monkeys have prehensile tails
that can grip branches (or whatever), but Old World monkeys have
non-prehensile tails that are just used for balance. Barbary macaques
(sometimes called Barbary apes, even though they are not apes) have
no tail at all.
The
term “monkey” isn't very useful in biology. That's because the
Old World monkeys are more closely related to apes, including humans,
than they are to New World monkeys. So although the term “Old World
monkeys” is useful, and the term “New World monkeys” is useful,
just the term “monkeys” is NOT useful as a taxonomic label.
Here
are a few examples of Old World monkeys:
And
here are a few New World monkeys:
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
