Mandarin New Year Animal Symbolism
Do you want to know which animal you could be? Find out the legendary evolutions of the Chinese New Year animals.
The event of Chinese New Year is without a hesitation considered to be the most important event in the Chinese lunar calendar. The cultural celebrations have been going on for years and the festive spirit is pretty much alive even today. The unique characteristic of the Chinese New Year is however the twelve year cycle that associates the coming of the year with an animal symbol.
The Chinese New Year animal repeatsevery twelve years. According to their present standing the next year should be the year of the Ox. The ancient philosophers of China studied the behavior of the animals in the calendar and drew a semblance with their personality traits and human nature.
You may believe the fact that the Chinese feel the person born on a particular animal year will have similar characteristics of the animal. If you are born in the year of ox then you will have good skill for organizing while loyalty and dependability will be your big assets. Ox is also known to be strong and patient.
The concept of the twelve year cycle with the animals designated to each year is derived from the Buddhist dharma. Legend has it that it was Buddha himself who summoned all these animals before he descended down to earth. There was a competition to be held amongst these animals where the first one to reach the finishing line would be assigned to 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 ending line, the rat jumped off his back and became the winner.
The first year of the twelve year cycle as a resultof the race was the year of the rat as he managed to finish the race in first position. This year is followed by the year of the ox as the rightly deserving animal came second unfortunately. Then the ox is followed by the rest of the animals on the basis of the position they finished the race in. the Last in the race was the pig!
If you are thinking why just twelve animals came to Buddha and why specifically these animals then keep wondering because you will find no answers to these questions! The fact of the matter is that this is an age-old tradition which has been kept alive up till today and is deeply embedded in the Chinese culture. As a token of appreciation for their coming Buddha apparently assigned a year to each of the animals and that's the way the legend has it.
The event of Chinese New Year is without a hesitation considered to be the most important event in the Chinese lunar calendar. The cultural celebrations have been going on for years and the festive spirit is pretty much alive even today. The unique characteristic of the Chinese New Year is however the twelve year cycle that associates the coming of the year with an animal symbol.
The Chinese New Year animal repeatsevery twelve years. According to their present standing the next year should be the year of the Ox. The ancient philosophers of China studied the behavior of the animals in the calendar and drew a semblance with their personality traits and human nature.
You may believe the fact that the Chinese feel the person born on a particular animal year will have similar characteristics of the animal. If you are born in the year of ox then you will have good skill for organizing while loyalty and dependability will be your big assets. Ox is also known to be strong and patient.
The concept of the twelve year cycle with the animals designated to each year is derived from the Buddhist dharma. Legend has it that it was Buddha himself who summoned all these animals before he descended down to earth. There was a competition to be held amongst these animals where the first one to reach the finishing line would be assigned to 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 ending line, the rat jumped off his back and became the winner.
The first year of the twelve year cycle as a resultof the race was the year of the rat as he managed to finish the race in first position. This year is followed by the year of the ox as the rightly deserving animal came second unfortunately. Then the ox is followed by the rest of the animals on the basis of the position they finished the race in. the Last in the race was the pig!
If you are thinking why just twelve animals came to Buddha and why specifically these animals then keep wondering because you will find no answers to these questions! The fact of the matter is that this is an age-old tradition which has been kept alive up till today and is deeply embedded in the Chinese culture. As a token of appreciation for their coming Buddha apparently assigned a year to each of the animals and that's the way the legend has it.
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Chinese New Years animals are symbolic representations of personality archetypes. If you want to read about how to give the traditional Chinese new year greeting click on the preceding links.
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