GONG Xi Fa Cai, everybody.

Or if you’re not fluent in Chinese – Happy New Year.

Monday was the start of the Chinese New Year. If you weren’t already aware, 2016 is the year of the monkey.

Every Chinese New Year is determined by one of 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac.

In much the same way that the western zodiac is made up of 12 blocks, so the Chinese one has a dozen ‘houses’.

But unlike the West where star signs last roughly for a month, the Chinese one lasts a full year.

The year of the monkey is ninth in the cycle. According to Chinese astrology, each zodiac animal sign is also associated with one of the five elements: gold (metal), water, wood, fire or earth. So 2016 is the year of the fire monkey.

Previous years of the monkey include 1968 and 1980. After this year, we won’t see it until 2028.

I was born in 1968 so I am a monkey.

Keep the jokes to yourself.

Although we are in the year 2016, the Chinese calendar doesn’t traditionally use continuously numbered years. However, for practical purposes, outside of China, years are often considered to have started from the reign of the third millennium emperor.

This is further confused by the fact that different scholars use three different years as the starting point year one.

So according to who you believe, we could be in the year 4713, 4712 or 4652.

Chinese zodiac forecasters say that for all 12 animals (so that’s all of us!) they can expect 2016 to be a period of renewed fighting spirit. During the course of the year of the monkey, we will all notice more success in our ventures while ongoing issues should be resolved quickly.

Those people who were born in a previous year of the monkey, 2016 will be a time to improve their personal wellbeing. I’ll look out for that, then.

If you believe in astrology and zodiacs, then surely there will be certain character traits typical of the year in which you were born.

So, those born in the year of the monkey possess such personality characteristics as curiosity, mischievousness and cleverness. They also love practical jokes.! But although monkeys’ intentions are always good, this wish to play the prankster can result in hurting people’s feelings.

They prefer urban life to living in rural areas and they love nothing more than people watching.

Those who will be born in 2016 will be fire monkeys. They will be full of strength and determination, and will be excellent at not only setting goals, but in meeting them as well.

So again I wish you Gong Xi Fa Cai.

I’m off for some monkey business.