The Chinese zodiac, in Chinese 生肖 (shēng xiào), is a repeating cycle of 12 years. Every year is represented by an animal and its reputed attributes. Each zodiac animal has lucky meanings and Chinese people associate them with certain characteristics. It is believed that people born in a given year have the personality of that year’s animal.
These are the 12 zodiac animals in the right order with their certain characteristics:
Rat: quick-witted, resourceful, flexible, kind
Qx: diligent, dependable, strong, determined
Tiger: brave, confident, competitive
Rabbit: quiet, elegant, kind, responsible
Dragon: confident, intelligent, enthusiastic
Snake: enigmatic, intelligent, wise
Horse: animated, active, energetic
Goat: calm, gentle, sympathetic
Monkey: sharp, smart, curious
Rooster: observant, hardworking, courageous
Dog: lovely, honest, prudent
Pig: compassionate, generous, diligent
2020 is a year of the Rat, starting from January 25th 2020 and ending on February 11th 2021.
There are two dates a Chinese zodiac year could be said to start on:
Chinese New Year (day one of the lunar year), which is somewhere in the period between January 21 to February 20, or Start of Spring (day one of the solar year), the first day of the first solar term in the traditional Chinese solar calendar, which falls in the period of February 3-5.
Most Chinese people use lunar new year as the start of the zodiac year.
As the Chinese zodiac recurs every 12 years, your animal year will come around when you are 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, etc. According to ancient Chinese superstition, in your birth sign year, you will offend the God of Age and will have bad luck during that year.
Chinese Zodiac Hours: Every Hour has an animal
It is widely known that each year is associated with an animal, but did you know that the animals are also assigned to months, days of the week and even hours?
In ancient times, in order to tell the time, people divided a day into twelve 2-hour periods and designated an animal to represent each period:
Rat: 11 pm to 1 am – The ancients heard them around this hour
Ox: 1 am to 3 am – People of old would get up and feed the Ox at this time
Tiger: 3 am to 5 am – Chinese people long ago often heard them roaring at this time
Rabbit: 5 am to 7 am – The time when Rabbits were seen to come out of their holes to eat grass
Dragon: 7 am – 9 am – Morning mists around the hills made people think of dragons
Snake: 9 am to 11 am – Snakes come out to sun themselves in the morning sun
Horse: 11 am to 1 pm – This time the sun is the strongest, only horses were see standing, while most other animals lie down and rest
Goat: 1 pm to 3 pm – This was the best time to herd the goats
Monkey: 3 pm to 5 pm – Monkeys were seen and heard playing in the trees
Rooster: 5 pm to 7 pm – Roosters are routinely led back to their henhouse before sunset
Dog: 7 pm to 9 pm – People would take their dog out to keep a watch at night before sleep
Pig: 9 pm to 11 pm – People could hear the pigs snouting their troughs when settling down to sleep
According to professional Chinese astrology, a person’s personality and life is more decided by his/her birth hour than year. Zodiac hours, days, months and years are used together for in-depth character and destiny analysis. However, in popular astrology, only the birth year is used.
Post time: Jan-06-2020