The myth behind the Chinese zodiac - Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen

What's your sign?

In Western astrology, it's a constellation determined by when your birthday falls in the calendar.

But according to the Chinese zodiac, or shēngxiào, it's your shǔxiàng, meaning the animal assigned to your birth year.

And of the many myths explaining these animal signs and their arrangement, the most enduring one is that of the Great Race.

As the story goes, Yù Dì, or Jade Emperor, Ruler of the Heavens, wanted to devise a way to measure time, so he organized a race.

The first twelve animals to make it across the river would earn a spot on the zodiac calendar in the order they arrived.

The rat rose with the sun to get an early start, but on the way to the river, he met the horse, the tiger, and the ox.

Because the rat was small and couldn't swim very well, he asked the bigger animals for help.

While the tiger and horse refused, the kind-hearted ox agreed to carry the rat across.

Yet, just as they were about to reach the other side, the rat jumped off the ox's head and secured first place.