Second Chance for a better New Year.
January 29th will be Chinese New Year of 2025. I spent many years in the Pacific Operational Area when I was younger. The Chinese New Year parades and celebrations were the biggest holiday events of the beginning of each year, I always tried to arrange to be in a good location on the route of the Chinese New Year parades, no matter which Asian country I happen to be in that year. Second floor bacony was an ideal place to see everything, as the parades went past your spot. Pre-arranging a table on the balcony of a restaurant was not that much of a problem. Got a table and seats with a great meal to enjoy while watching the parades. I have some good memories of the Chinese New Year Celebrations from the years I was assigned to PACAF.
For those not familiar with the Chinese New Year Celebrations here is a short explanation;
The Chinese zodiac, as an essential part of Chinese culture, started to take shape during the Han Dynasty. This era formalizes a twelve-year cycle, where each year is associated with a specific animal, as part of a timekeeping system. This system, known as the zodiac cycle, combined the twelve
Earthly Branches (地支) with the ten
Heavenly Stems (天干) to create a total of a 60-year cycle. Each Earthly Branch was linked to an animal, and to
the twelve zodiac signs: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. This year is the year of the Snake.
According to legend, the
Jade Emperor held a contest to decide which animals would be lucky enough to be included in the calendar. The winner of the race – the rat – received the first year of the 12-year cycle, and so on. and each of the twelve animals corresponded one of the twelve branches. People born in any given year have animals belonging to that branch of the earth, and accordingly, twelve animals are used for chronology and the genus of each person.
It is similar to the Western Zodiac where a persons individual traits are determined by which Zodiac Sign he or she was born under. There are many very detailed explanations of how the Chinese Zodiac works on the Internet, if you are interested in finding out more.
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To find out which Chinese Zodiac Animal your birth year represents, just locate the year you were born on chart. Your Chinese Zodiac Animal will be on the top of the column where you found your birth year.
