The ideal way to celebrate Chinese New Year may very well be to feast on chop suey, sweet and sour pork, wontons in Szechuan chili sauce, deep-fried jumbo shrimp, cashew chicken, spicy satay or spring rolls.

Tomorrow (Feb. 12) is Chinese New Year and it also marks the start of the Year of the Ox.

For non-Chinese people, the easiest way to get in on the action is to eat Chinese food, which gained popularity globally as Chinese emigrated all over the world and brought their cuisine with them.

Mekong restaurant won the gold medal for best Chinese food in KelownaNow's Best of Kelowna 2020 awards, so it's a great place to order your Year of the Ox delicacies.

Mekong serves up all of those aforementioned Chinese dishes.

"Of course we celebrate Chinese New Year," said Joanna Chen, who works at Mekong, which her parents own.

"Usually we give red pockets with money in them to each other for luck and prosperity."

Other customary ways to celebrate Chinese New Year are with fireworks and going to temple to pray for good luck.

The traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar is based on the moon, so the start of a new year varies and can happen anytime in January or February.

This year's Feb. 12 new year also kicks off the Year of the Ox, which will last until Jan. 31, 2022.

The Chinese zodiac, which is tied into the lunar calendar, features years named after a dozen animals in a 12 year rotation.

That means the Year of the Ox comes around every 12 years — 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021 and 2033.

The animals in the zodiac are, in order, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

For this year, the ox's fortunes aren't stable, so people this year will have to work hard to turn disadvantage to advantage.

Oxen are a respected draft animals in China, so the beast of burden's traits are said to also be exhibited by people born in the Year of the Ox.

Those characteristics are dependability, strength and determination leading to success.

Ox's weaknesses are stubbornness and poor communication skills.

This year ox's lucky numbers are 1 and 9, lucky colours are red, blue and purple, lucky directions north and south and lucky flowers tulip and peach blossom.

Famous people born during years of the ox include Barack Obama, Princess Diana, Walt Disney, Margaret Thatcher and Bruno Mars.