Want to know what animal you are? Find out the legendary 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 way since ages now and the festive spirit is still very much alive at present. The rare feature of the Chinese New Year is that according to the twelve year cycle, 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 traits and human nature.
You may consider 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.
It is believed that the twelve year concept of the animals representing each year is deduced from the Buddhist dharma. According to the legend Buddha himself summoned the animals prior to his coming to the Earth. Moreover, a competition was held amongst these animals where the animal that came first would be assigned to the first year.
The race began with heavy contesting between the animals. The cunning rat after making a deal with the cat decided to cheat. All the while it seemed 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.
Hence, we will see that the first 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 thinking why just twelve animals came to Buddha and why specifically these animals then keep wondering because you will get 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 Chinese New Year is an important event in the Chinese lunar calendar. Celebrations have been carried out in the most traditional way since ages now and the festive spirit is still very much alive at present. The rare feature of the Chinese New Year is that according to the twelve year cycle, 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 traits and human nature.
You may consider 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.
It is believed that the twelve year concept of the animals representing each year is deduced from the Buddhist dharma. According to the legend Buddha himself summoned the animals prior to his coming to the Earth. Moreover, a competition was held amongst these animals where the animal that came first would be assigned to the first year.
The race began with heavy contesting between the animals. The cunning rat after making a deal with the cat decided to cheat. All the while it seemed 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.
Hence, we will see that the first 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 thinking why just twelve animals came to Buddha and why specifically these animals then keep wondering because you will get 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 symbols with deeper meanings . If you want to read about how to give the traditional Chinese new year greeting click on the preceding links.
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