Years, Animals & Interpretations: The Chinese Zodiac

Since ancient times, an analogy has existed between animals and personalities of human beings. This is evident in the different zodiac systems followed around the world. For instance, the Chinese believe that an animal represents each year, and the person born in that year is most likely to exhibit characteristics similar to the animal that represents it.

Birth Of The 12-Year Zodiac Cycle

Some cultures, like Chinese, have different beliefs regarding numbers. In traditional Chinese society, the number 12 plays a significant role when calculating time. Ancient observers noted that there were 12 full moons in a year. They also observed that the day could be divided into 12 equal parts. These observations led to the development of the 12-month lunar year and the 12-day watch. The Chinese began grouping years into twelve-year cycles, assigning each year an animal symbol.

The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, is based on a twelve-year cycle, each year in the cycle is related to an animal sign. These animal signs are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar. It is calculated according to Chinese lunar calendar. The animal year, or the birth year, of a person is called his Benming Nian. The distinctive zodiacal way of calculating years based on the lunar calendar decides that once in every 12 years, every person will be reunited with his sign of birth.

The Grand Meeting Of Animals

The exact origins of the twelve animal systems, remains a mystery and there have been various legends mentioned relating to the possible philosophy behind the animal signs. However, the most common is the chronicle of animals being called for a meeting by Buddha.

Legend is that Buddha called a meeting of all the world’s animals to determine how to restore order to the world, but only 12 took note of his call. They came to be a symbol of the 12-year cycle, with each animal residing over a year. The order that they arrived in determined the order of the zodiac.

As they travelled to the meeting, the tough ox was much ahead of the rest and just had a river to cross to come in first. If only the ox knew that the sneaky rat had snagged a ride on the ox’s back, turning out to be the first one to arrive by jumping off the ox’s back as soon as he was about to leap from the river onto the land. Thus, ranking the rat first on the Chinese zodiac.

Chinese Zodiac In Popular Culture

A number of literature and movies have been made on the theme. Most popular amongst them being Jackie Chan’s movie “Chinese Zodiac” that tells the story of the Old Summer Palace and its looting of treasure and destruction by British and French soldiers in the Second Opium War. Among the treasures stolen are twelve bronze heads of the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Fruits Basket, the monthly Japanese manga series, has characters that are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac and turn into their zodiac animal when they are hugged by the opposite gender, are weak, or under stress. Fruits Basket is a fun way to discover more about the zodiac.

Gear Up For Year Of The Horse!

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Chinese Spring Festival, is considered to be most auspicious event in the Chinese calendar. It has a rich tradition which goes back over 4,000 years during the reign of the Shang Dynasty (11th- 17th century B.C.) The Chinese solar terms herald the start of the spring season as the beginning of a new year, so the first day of the spring season marks the New Year’s Day in China. Although the Chinese have adopted the use of the Western calendar since 1911 A.D., festive occasions such as the Chinese New Year still follow the lunar calendar dates. To avoid disagreements or confusion, both solar and lunar calendar dates can be found in most Chinese calendars today.

The upcoming New Year is the year of the horse and the festival scheduled for 31st January, 2014 will be marking the beginning of the Chinese year 4712. Expect to witness celebrations in various parts of the world. Several news channels will be showing live coverage of the celebrations in China; make sure not to miss it.