The Year of the Pig starts on the 18th of February 2007.
According to the legend, there came a day when Buddha felt that the Chinese nation was sadly in need of some reorganisation. On the occasion of the New Year he
called all the animals in the kingdom together for a meeting. But only twelve beasts showed up for this convention. Buddha honoured them in order of arrival at his
summit conference and endowed each of the Twelve Animals with a year of its own. The cycle of the Chinese Zodiac renews itself every twelve years. The Chinese New year
is between late January and early February this is when the next animal year starts.
Many Chinese believe that the year of a person's birth is the primary factor in determing that person's personality traits, physical and mental attributes
and degree of success and happiness throughout their lifetime.
Oriental astrology is based on the cycles of Saturn and Jupiter. The first 60 year period which takes for Saturn to travel around its orbit twice. Therefore, Jupiter will take five complete jouneys during the time it takes Saturn to travel around its orbit twice. This is the reason why there are five different "elements" used in oriental astrology: wood, metal, water, fire and earth.
There are twelve divisions in the oriental zodiac, but they are based on the cycle of Jupiter which takes 12 years to complete one journey around its orbit. Therefore, Jupiter remains for one year in each of these 12 divisions and each of these consecutive years is named after an animal whose nature, attributes and behaviour are supposed to express the qualities of that period and therefore, of the people born during that period.
The current 60 year cycle began in 1980 when the previous 60 year cycle concluded in 1983 from 1924.
Each great cycle begins with the year of the Wood Rat and the order of the animals which rule each consecutive year is Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Because Jupiter makes five complete journeys round the great circle in 60 years, there are five variations of each of the animals, for instance people can be born in the Year of the Metal Rat, the Water Rat, the Fire Rat or the Earth Rat.
Therefore the cycle of animals is completed every 12 years but the entire cycle of elemnets in combination with animals takes 60 years to run through. For example, the Year of the Metal Rat was 1900, in 1912 it was the year of the Water Rat. The year of the Wood Rat was 1924 twelve years later. Then in 1936 is the Year of the Fire Rat and finally in 1948 it was the year of the Earth Rat. Another twevle years later in 1960 the whole great cycle starts again.
To Find Out Which Chinese Birthsign You Are click here
