Happy Niu Year.

    No, this is not a typo. Instead, this is the most popular short text message flying from one cell phone to another. And it indeed is a New Year greeting.

    "Niu" means an ox in Chinese and sounds similar to the English word "new". And people are using it creatively to wish relatives and friends a Happy New Year because the Chinese year of the ox is less than a month away.

    The ox is one of the 12-year-cycle animals in the Chinese lunar calendar. It symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work, and the passage of a particularly troublesome year explains people's love for the animal.