Chinese Zodiac SignsWhile we're all familiar with the signs of the Western zodiac, based on the movements of the constellations, Chinese zodiac signs probably aren't as familiar. We've all seen the drawings on our restaurant place mats, of course. However, there's a lot more to the Chinese zodiac than that. Unlike the zodiac of Europe, the Chinese cycle is purely calendrical. It's actually made up of several cycles. The first, the more familiar animals, is a cycle of twelve years. The animals are each assigned a year, and always come in the same order. Depending on what year you were born, you'll be a rat, ox, tiger or rabbit, a dragon, snake, sheep or horse, or a monkey, rooster, dog or boar. In addition to these Chinese zodiac signs, elements and energies are also associated with each year. A given year is either yin or yang, and is associated with one of the five Chinese elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The elements and energies alternate. The beginning of the cycle is years ending in zero, which are yang metal. The next year will be yin metal, and the one following yang water. The cycle of Chinese zodiac signs proceeds in this fashion until the end of the combinations are reached. Then it starts over again. Since there are fewer energy and elemental combinations than there are animals, different years have different associations. For instance, someone born in 1979 would be a yin earth sheep. Whereas someone born twelve years later, in 1991, with the same animal sign, would be a yin metal sheep. The associated animal is thought to affect the personality of the person, but so is the energy of the year and the element. On top of that, there are different animals for each month, and even for the hours of the day. This serves to explain why people born in the same year aren't all alike in personality! |