Dreading the comments of "concerned" relatives during Chinese New Year can make you feel like you've aged prematurely. But according to the Chinese way of reckoning your age, you're really older than you think.

In the Chinese culture, newborn babies are considered to be already one-year-olds. It is believed that a baby's age reckoned from its time in the mother's womb onwards. Compare this to Western or Westernised societies where the child is considered to be one only at the first anniversary of her or his birth.