The Chinese Zodiac – Bailey W.

The Chinese Zodiac – Bailey W.

Chinese Zodiac

The Chinese Zodiac is a really popular myth in China which talks about the 12 animal guards for the ‘Jade Emperor’ who was the supreme immortal. He held a race between different animals, however, there were only 12 places to become guards. And this is the mythical story about how the animals became the guards :  

The rat and ox  were the ones that got up the earliest. During the race to the Gate of the Emperor, the rat jumped onto the back of the ox to cross the river. The Rat won the 1st as the rat suddenly jumped down from ox’s back and dashed to the feet of the Emperor when they’re near to the heavenly Gate. Ox was second and was speechless. 

Then, the tiger and rabbit came 3rd and 4th as they were both quick and competitive; the tiger got there earlier than the rabbit just by a couple of seconds. 

And next, the dragon which at that time was the most popular animal (Even the emperor liked the dragons!), was 5th and was suddenly noticed by the Jade Emperor, so he said that dragon’s son could be the 6th. After a few minutes, snake came forward and said dragon was his adoptive father; so snake ranked as the 6th

Then soon, the horse and goat arrived. They were the kindest and modest animals, so they both let the others go first. And they still managed to rank 7th  and 8th, which was really appreciated by the emperor. 

Monkey had fallen well behind. However, he jumped between trees and stones, and caught up to get the 9th place. The last ones were rooster, dog, and pig, which makes sense, as they were all lazy, and weren’t quite as fast. 

Last year, 2023 was a year of the Rabbit, starting from January 22nd, 2023, and ending on February 9th, 2024. Well, 2024 is the year of the Dragon (龍/龙), starting from February 10th, 2024 and ends on January 29th, 2025. Yes, so the Dragon Year doesn’t start at 1st of January, it starts when it’s the end of 2023 lunar calendar which is in February after the day for Chinese New Year dinner. 

People who were born in the Dragon Year usually have a heart full of adventure and romance. It is difficult for people to understand the mysterious personality of the person who was born in the Dragon Year. Additionally, they have fewer problems than ordinary people, as they don’t care about many things that much. They might seem to be really lazy, but once they decide to do something, they are more ambitious and energetic than anyone else. Often, people consider them as confident, intelligent, enthusiastic. 

So, do you know what your own Zodiac sign is? 

(This is a useful calculator to work out exactly what Chinese animal you are: Chinese Zodiac Calculator – What is My Chinese Zodiac (chinahighlights.com))