Today marks the Chinese New Year and this year it is known as ‘The Year Of The Dog’.

I have been reading up about it and it’s really fascinating, too much to write about here but I have provided some links below to a great website with lots of information on the myths, traditions and history of the annual celebrations.

Basically it is similar in principal to he Zodiac we are familiar with, except that instead of months, it runs in years based on a lunar cycle so every year New Year falls on a different date. It has existed in Chinese culture since the Qin dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago.  The Chinese Zodiac repeats every 12 years, with each of the 12 years named after an animal, this year it is the dog.  

But it gets more complicated than just that, with Ten Celestial Stems each paired with a zodiac sign and then paired with Earthly Branches combining to create a 60 year calendrical cycle.  For each year there is also a fixed element which is what determines which other signs you are compatible with. Simple.

Technically this year is:  

wu (Celestial Stem), xu (Earthly Branch), Dog (Zodiac), Earth (Element), Yang (Yin Yang).

Personally I like the story of how the zodiac came to be named after the animals.  It seems the animals all had a race to the Jade Emperors Palace and the zodiac signs were named in the order in which they arrived.  Some got delayed, others had adventures on the way.

The thing that I found most interesting is that the year of one’s zodiac sign is traditionally not a good year, often the most unlucky year.  It is seen as a hurdle to get over before continuing on their steady and quiet road to happiness. It is Chinese tradition to wear red underwear every day during their zodiac year in order to ward off bad luck.

In summary, if this year, ‘The Year Of The Dog’ is your year e.g. you were born in 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994,2006,2018, it is just a year you have to get through, wearing red underwear might help, you have nothing to loose!

All about The Year Of The Dog - Click Here

All about the Chinese New Year - Click Here

All about the Chinese Zodiac - Click Here