Let us fin out what animal we are and the ancient history that led to the origins of the Chinese New Year animals.
The Chinese New Year is an important event in the Chinese lunar calendar. Celebrations have been carried out in the most traditional manner since ages now and the merry-making spirit is still very much alive at present. The rare feature of the Chinese New Year is that according to the twelve year rotation, the coming of the year is related to an animal symbol significantly.
The Chinese New Year animal follows a twelve year cycle and hence repeats. According to their present status, the next year should be the year of the Ox. The ancient philosophers of China have done a research on the behavior of the animals and have drawn a similarity between their personality characteristics and human nature.
You may believe the fact that the Chinese feel the person born on a particular animal year will have parallel characteristics of the animal. If you are born in the year of ox then you will have good talent for organizing while loyalty and dependability will be your big assets. Ox is also known to be strong and patient.
The concept behind the twelve year cycle with these beasts symbolizing each year was taken from the Buddhist dharma. Ancient history records that it was Buddha himself who summoned all these animals before he himself descended to Earth. Then a race was held between these animals where the victorious one would be responsible for the first year.
The race began with heavy contesting between the animals. The sly rat after making a deal with the cat decided to cheat. All the while it looked like the Ox would win the race as it maneuvered through the crowd. But the ox was unaware of the fact that the cunning rat was sitting on his back all through the race and when he came close to the finishing line, the rat jumped off his back and became the winner.
thus, we will see that the starting year of the twelve year lunar cycle is the year of the rat as he cleverly managed to come first in the race and then it is followed by the year of ox as the hardworking animal secured second place. The ox is then followed by the rest of the animals in order of the positions they claimed with pig having the last position.
If you are in a doubt as to why just twelve animals came to Buddha and why only these specific animals came, then do not look for any answers to such questions. As a matter of fact, this is nothing but an ancient culture which has been just made alive up till now and is strongly believed. As a token of honor and appreciation for their coming, Buddha assigned a year each to the animals.
Chinese new year animals are symbols with deeper meanings . If you want to read about how to give the traditional Chinese new year greeting click on the preceding links.
