Happy DingHai
The New Chinese Year, the Year of the Boar, starts today. Congratulations for all the followers of this calendar.
The Chinese Calendar, which is based on astorology and celestial features according to ancient Chinese beliefs, is among the oldest used by humans - I read somewhere that it goes back over 4600 years, to the times the chinese Emperor Huang Ti introduced his version of the zodiac, somewhere around the year 2600BC. It is composed of several interleaved cycles: the week, which was originally a 10-day week, was combined in groups of 3 to make months; twelve months made a year; and the basic cycle of years, the famous 12-animal years, goes into 60-years cycle, which in turn fit into higher scales (the 3600-year epoch, for example).
I trust you noted the interesting combination of celestial figures with human anatomy in the creation of the calendar. Of course, it later evolved to fit the heavenly movements more closely; it is now based on lunar months, pretty much like the Jewish calendar.
The basic annual cycle is Rat - Ox - Tiger - Rabbit - Dragon - Snake - Horse - Ram - Monkey - Rooster - Dog - Boar. I, by the way, am a Rabbit born (which gives me, according to the Chinese astrology, the clear tendency to be affectionate, co-operative, pleased, and make a lot of friends. If you believe it.). affectionate, co-operative and pleasant, with lots of friends
According to the Chinese count, today started year 4704. An interesting trivia note is that this is about a millenia shorter then the Jewish calendar, according to which we are now around 5768 years after the creation; of course, the Chinese don’t claim that their reference point is anything as ambitious as the creation.
Another interesting trivia note: there is no china-town neighbourhood in Israel. At least, not an official one. Some places of southern Tel-Aviv do have a significant chinese population, but there is nothing official like in other major towns of the world.
The Boar year is considered a good year to be born at. Therefore, the chinese authorities expect many babies. I wish them all good luck; Happy new year!
