February 1st was Lunar New Year. That means that the Chinese Zodiac has changed too! This year, 2022, is the year of the tiger.
Tigers are known for being courageous as well as energetic beings. They love challenges, competitions, and enjoy taking risks. They rather be the leader than be lead – real bosses!
There are twelve Chinese Zodiac signs: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. This order is no coincidence. As with many things in Chinese culture, there’s an old story about how the Chinese Zodiac animals got their order. This story is called The race to the heavenly gates. You can almost guess by the title: a number of animals partook in a race, and whoever would arrive at the heavenly gates first would be first in the order of the Chinese Zodiac. And that is exactly what happened!
So why was there a competition in the first place? Because the Jade Emperor wanted to choose twelve animals to become his guardians. There were more than twelve animals that wanted the spots, so they had to do complete a race. There was also a cat, but as the story tells, the cat had overslept as the rat didn’t want to wake him before starting the race. Of course, the rat wanted to win!
And so the rat won. Well, reason one was that he got up so early, but reason two is when he encountered a river during the competition, he patiently waited for the ox to arrive at the river. Then, he quickly jumped into the ox’s ear. The ox didn’t mind and took the rat across the river. At the other side, the rat jumped off and quickly ran to the finish. The ox finished second.
In third and fourth place, the tiger and rabbit arrived. Both are competitive and fast animals, but the tiger was a bit faster as it happened. Number five and six were for the dragon and the snake. After that, the horse and the goat arrived. They were so polite that they wanted to let each other go first. The Jade Emperor liked this attitude, so he allowed them seventh and eighth place.
The monkey crossed the finish line as ninth. He got behind, but by jumping from tree to tree he managed to stay ahead of the rooster, dog, and pig. These three were last to finish, filling up the twelve spots the Jade Emperor wanted to fill.
Poor cat, next time it’s best to set the alarm yourself so you don’t oversleep!
What’s your Chinese Zodiac sign? This China Highlights image shows you which animal pairs with which birth year!