China Central Television surprised its viewers Wednesday after it revealed the first-ever official mascot for the Spring Festival Gala this coming Lunar New Year.
A poster of Yangyang the Goat was posted in CCTV's official account in the Twitter-like microblogging platform Sina Weibo on Wednesday and explained how he came to be.
According to the post, Yangyang hailed from the province of Guangdong's capital, Guangzhou.
Legend reveals that Guangzhou became popularly known as "Yang Cheng" or the city of goats because of the arrival of five fairies riding five goats and brought five bunches of corns to the local people to bless them with everlasting fertility.
Once done with the delivery, the five fairies then vanished into the sky and left their five heavenly goats in Guangzhou who then turned into stone.
In reverence to the legend, a stone statue of five goats was erected in Guangzhou by sculptors Yin Jichang, Kong Fanwei and Chen Benzong in 1959. They are now known as the "Five Ram Statue," which became popular to the locals and visitors alike.
Now, CCTV has chosen Yangyang as the Spring Festival Gala's mascot, the first in 33 years, to welcome the upcoming Year of the Ram.
The CCTV's Spring Festival Gala is an annual event produced and broadcast by the television network on the eve of each Lunar New Year.
This year, the Chinese New Year was calendared on Feb. 19, making the Spring Festival Gala set to be aired on Feb. 18.
Artists such as Andy Lau as well as teen pop stars Luhan from Korea, William Chan, KRIS from Canada, Zheng Ziqi from Get Everybody Movin' (G.E.M.), and Chris Lee will be performing in the show.