Saturday, February 02, 2008

Chinese Horoscopes

When one talks about Horoscope, the first things that come into the mind will be the Western Zodiac (Cancer, Gemini, Capricon, Aquarius, etc) and if one is Chinese, the Chinese Zodiac of the 12 animals and thus there appears to exist 12 horoscopes for the Chinese based on the 12 animal years.

However, for the Chinese, to be more specified, the lunar calendar has a sixty year cycle. In the Chinese horoscope, the five basic elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth, which make up all matter, are combined with the twelve animal signs of Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Lamb, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig to form the sixty year cycle. One's Chinese horoscope is based on which lunar year in this sixty year cycle one was born, and thus one can fall into one of the 60 more specified horoscope.

Example, if one is born in 1996 and 2008, (after the lunar month), one is a 'rat' according to the Chinese Zodiac, but since 1996 and 2008 are the year of the fire and earth respectively, one is a 'fire rat' if born in 1996 after the lunar month and a 'earth rat' if born in 2008 after the lunar month. For more information.

But according to my preceding post, for this year 2008, the year of the rat starts on 4 Feb 08. Thus if a baby is born on 4 Feb 08, he or she is an 'earth rat' and not still the 'fire pig' as more accurately put, the year of the 'fire pig' of 2007 shall end on 18:59 China Time Zone.

1 comment :

kitty@woodlands said...

I have an interest in Chinese Astrology since teenage days so like to read on the predictions or yearly forecasts for all the animals signs when the new year starts.

Found that chinese horoscopes websites share a few similarities with those western horoscopes websites e.g. calculator tools to check your sign compatibility, profile on every sign & relationship/personality analysis.

Hopefully the coming Rat Year will shower good luck and fortune on fire dragons like me.:)

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