The Chinese New Year is only a couple of weeks away. On February 1, 2022, the year of the tiger will commence. Originating in China, the Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme based on the Chinese lunar calendar. It assigns an animal and its attributes to each year in a twelve-year cycle.
But why are there only twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac and why in the particular order?
The answer is rooted in mythology.
Twelve years
According to Chinese mythology, the Jade Emperor, one of the most important gods in traditional Chinese religion, organised a race and invited all the animals in the world to take part in it. Only twelve species turned up on the day of the race – pig, dog, rooster, monkey, sheep, horse, snake, dragon, rabbit, tiger, ox and rat- and as a reward for making it the Emperor named a year in the zodiac after each animal The race, on the other hand, would determine the order in which each animal would be placed.
The race
All animals, big and small, had to run a course which included crossing a huge river. Many expected the dragon to finish first, but it wasn’t the dragon.
The rat was exhausted and would have never made it past the river. It used its cunningness to hitch a ride with the kind ox. The rat sat on the ox’s head and just as the ox crossed the river and reached the shore towards the finish line, the rat jumped ahead and came first. The tiger came third as the current in the river sent it slightly off-course. The rabbit came in fourth. It almost slipped and fell off in the river, until it found a log and floated on it across the river. The kind dragon came fifth since it was busy helping villagers by extinguishing a fire. Then, it saw the rabbit floating dangerously on the log and gave it a blow to send it to the shore, before finishing behind it. The horse thought it would come in sixth, but the snake had other plans. It wrapped itself onto one of the horse’s legs and just as the horse was to reach the finish line, the snake slid forward, scaring the horse and using the opportunity to finish sixth. Finishing eighth, ninth and tenth were the sheep, monkey and rooster who used teamwork to cross the river by piloting a raft and then dashing for the finish.
The dog finished tenth as it spent all its time enjoying bathing in the river, and finally as the race was about to close, the pig made it. The pig got hungry and stopped to eat. Then, it fell asleep before waking up and finally reaching the finish line.
Picture Credit : Google
