Chinese culture is bursting with symbols of luck and fortune. And the Chinese zodiac is just one of many fortune prediction methods. The zodiac comprises of 12 animal symbols in total that repeat in a 12-year cycle. Each year is the year of a specific animal - for example, 2018 is the year of the dog.
The zodiac animals are, in order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and lastly pig. Why these 12 animals in particular? Well, these animals were actually deliberately chosen, representing creatures that were most closely associated with ancient Chinese people’s lives.
The ox, horse and goat were important domestic animals - while the tiger, dragon and snake were simply loved by the people. Their order in the zodiac, according to legend, was decided by a race but the arrangement may have been decided for a different reason.
The animals were placed in a fixed order which was determined by a number of factors but most importantly: the Yin and Yang theory. This ordering means that the creatures and the years have been arranged in an alternating yin-yang sequence to represent balance and harmony.
Each of the animals has a symbolic meaning, attribute and saying attached to it. What’s most interesting is that each animal has a contrasting partner - just like yin and yang. The animal’s attribute and respective partner’s attribute harmonise with each other creating balance. For example, the rat harmonizes with the ox - and their assigned attributes (wisdom and industriousness respectively) balance each other out.
