In the West, when a child is born, he or she is zero years old. In Chinese culture, babies are already one-year-old when they are born. A polite way to figure out a person’s age is to ask a person’s Chinese zodiac sign.

There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac and knowing a person’s Chinese zodiac sign is an easy way to calculate a person’s age.

Traditionally, Chinese people do not pay a lot of attention to birthdays until they are 60 years old. The 60th birthday is regarded as a very important point of life and therefore there is often a big celebration. After that, a birthday celebration is held every ten years, that is the 70th, the 80th, etc, until the person's death. Generally, the older the person is, the greater the celebration occasion is.