新年快乐(Happy New Year)

The Year of the Dog

Do you know when is Chinese new year? Do you know the story of the great race? Chinese new year doesn’t start on the first of January. It started on Friday, February 16th 2018. Every year on Chinese new year they have an animal. The animal for 2018 is the dog. Which is Gǒu in Chinese.

This reminds me of the story the great race…..

A long long time ago in China, no one in china knew how to tell what year it was. The Jade emperor made a decision to make a zodiac calendar, so everyone knew what year, month and day it was.

The emperor declared to all the animals, that there will be a race on his birthday. They had to cross a river as fast as they can. The first 12 to cross the river would be announced as the winner. Those 12 animals will have a year of the zodiac named after them.

This was the order:

1. Rat

2. Ox

3. Tiger

4. Rabbit

5. Dragon

6. Snake

7. Horse

8. Goat

9. Monkey

10. Rooster

11. Dog

12. Pig

Now the years repeat over and over with an animal representing it. They go in order.

What’s your Animal Zodiac?