Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Horoscope Column #2: Chinese Zodiac By Sheryl Lin

Horoscope Column #2: Chinese Zodiac
By Sheryl Lin

Hello again, Island Trees! This issue of the Horoscope Column is all about the Chinese Zodiac. This year, 2016, is the year of the Monkey.

So what’s the Chinese Zodiac all about? Basically, it’s a 12-year cycle based on the lunar calendar. Every year gets its own animal. This diagram might help you:
As you can see, there are twelve different animals. They’re the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each animal has its own personality and unique compatibility with other zodiac animals. This diagram shows you which years belong to which animal; whatever animal your birth year fits into is your Chinese zodiac animal. But watch out: since the Chinese calendar is based on the moon, it’s different from Western years! Chinese New Year is usually mid-February, so if you were born in January you’re probably the past year’s animal.

Now, there’s a story behind the order of the Chinese zodiac. It’s known as the Great Race.

Once upon a time, the emperor of China decided to create some kind of calendar to keep track of time. He told the animals to join in on a swimming race, and that the first twelve animals would get a year of the zodiac named after them.

There’s a whole lot of trickery that these animals use in order to get in front of the others!

  • The rat and the cat ask the kind ox to hitch a ride on his back across the river, and once they get across the rat kicks the cat off. This leaves the rat as the first animal and the ox as the second.
  • The snake coils around the horse’s hoof the entire time, and once the horse makes it across the river the snake jumps out and scares the horse. The snake makes it in sixth and the horse makes it seventh.
  • A raft drifts in carrying the rooster, the monkey and the goat. The rooster was the one that found the raft, and the goat and monkey rowed the raft. The rooster was eighth, the monkey was ninth, and the goat was tenth.

That’s all for today’s edition of the Zodiac Column! Tune in next time for an exploration of Japanese ABO blood types.