Today is the first day of the spring season. That means spring is already here, before the Chinese people celebrates their Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival.
The blog shown in the title link has a nice and brief mention on today's significance to the Chinese.
One also needs to be aware of the significance of the first day of spring coming before the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, but the Chinese Zodiac sign is actually based on Solar Terms. A brief explanation can be found here.
So what this means is that babies that are born today onwards are under the Tiger sign! This is before the Chinese New Year itself. It can be somewhat confusing. But as long as one keeps in mind that Chinese New Year may not be same day as the first day of spring, then knowing which Chinese Zodiac sign will be less confusing..
:)
