Gong xi fa cai – Year of the cock
Okay, Chinese New Year was yesterday, but Happy Chinese New Year, anyway. This morning I found the following image on the site of that purveyor of fine videogaming paraphernalia, Lik-Sang, which I thought was amusing.
Incidentally, this lunar year, which I prefer to call the year of the rooster, or of the chicken, is the year of my own sign of the Chinese zodiac. Not that I believe such things as astrology are any more than metaphysical fantasies, but it is nevertheless, a point of interest.
I am hoping to enjoy the year of the cock. :-)
Mel
9 Feb 05 at 15:07
I hope you will. Sadly, in the Chinese zodiac, there’s no cat, so there’ll be no year of the pussy for me to enjoy.
Here’s a very short story about why not, lifted from Wikipedia, Chinese Zodiac:
Ben Hourigan
9 Feb 05 at 22:50
Yes, however although there is no year of the pussy, there is the weekend celebrations in Lt Bourke St (& Box Hill) to compensate :)
Steve
10 Feb 05 at 0:53
correct if i’m wrong but i thought that the story of the cat and mouse in the chinese zodiac was that the mouse trick the cat by telling the cat that the party was a day later then actually party so the cat missed the party which is why the cat is not in the chinese zodiac…..
well naturally to think that i got this information from an anime Fruits baskets … i would most probably be wrong but it just doesn’t make sense if the rat and cat were good friends why would the rat FORGET to tell his best friend… more over the rat in the chinese zodiac is know to be crafty.
gerri
10 Feb 05 at 10:40
I am looking forward to the year of the horse, too!! :-)
Mel
11 Feb 05 at 0:41
And the snake! Heh heh heh!
Mel
11 Feb 05 at 0:42
The horse, Mel? Reallyâ¦
Gerri, there’s a lot of different stories about the zodiac. I’m not sure if the Fruits Basket version is traditional or not, but if you help keep Fruits Basket fandom alive, maybe one day people will think that it was the original story, after all.
Friends do stupid things to each other sometimes. There is also a version of the story where the animals have to race across the river. The cat, afraid of water, rides on the ox’s back, but the rat, crafty as he is, pushes the cat off the ox’s back, and by the time the cat makes it across there are no places left in the zodiac.
But anyway, nobody said fables had to make sense.
Ben Hourigan
11 Feb 05 at 1:08
Is the rat even strong enough to push the cat off the Ox’s back?
Forget to tell his friend? That’s possible but I don’t think it’s very likely. True, there are many different versions of why the cat was left out, but I’ve never heard of that version before.
The one where the rat tricks the cat that the banquet is the day after is what I’ve always heard since I was four. In 2005, this year, it’s going to be the year of the dog. That’s Tohru’s year. I was also born in the year of the dog so I’m very excited.
Sakura
27 Dec 05 at 8:36