The Vietnamese Zodiac

Hi everyone! Now I have another interesting story to tell you. The story called" The Vietnamese Zodiac".

Each sign of the Vietnamese zodiac has a particular animal name. From the very beginning, the animal sequence of the zodiac has appeared every 12 years. It always begins with the Rat and finishes with the Pig. So why was each year given an animal name and a set of characteristics?

One legend is that Buddha called all of the animal together and only 12 arrived. He then rewarded each of them by naming a year after them.As the Rat came first, he got the first year, and so on down to the Pig, which arrived last.

There is another, more likely answer, however. It may be that the people who created the zodiac decided to use animal that were characteristic of what had happened during that year. The Ox year, for example, is the second year of the 12 - year cycle. The Ox year is traditionally a slow moving, hard- working year. To show that in the zodiac, the slow animal of labour, the Ox, was chosen.

For the fifth year of the cycle,a time of celebration and festival, they chose the noisy Dragon, and the Horse for the lively seventh year. Some of the animals are not so familiar to people nowadays as they were in the past. For example, most people find rats rather disgusting creatures. On a farm, however, a rat is a very helpful animal.

Do you like the story? I think the story may help you understand something about The Vietnamese people and culture.

See you soon!