WRITTEN ON Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 BY admin AND STORED IN Astrology, Debt, Marketing
According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was heading the cycle of years. The gods were asked to decide which held a contest: who has been to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish.
All the twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped on his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox’s back, and won the race. The pig, which was very lazy, ended up last. This is why the rat is the first year of the cycle of animal origin, as the ox, and the last pig.
The Chinese animal signs are 12-year cycle used for dating years. They represent a cyclical concept of time, rather than the Western linear concept of time. In the Chinese calendar, the beginning year ’s falls between late January and early February. The Chinese have adopted the Western calendar since 1911, but the lunar calendar is still used for festive occasions like Chinese New Year. Many Chinese calendars print both the solar dates and Chinese lunar dates.
A cultural sidelight of the animal signs in Chinese folklore is that horoscopes have developed around the animal signs, much like monthly horoscopes in the West have been developed for the different moon signs, Pisces, Aries, etc. For example, a Chinese horoscope May predict that a person born in the Year of the Horse would be cheerful, popular, and loves to compliment others. These horoscopes are amusing, but not taken seriously by the Chinese people.