Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

AndWat posted the following photo of a Chinese Zodiac horoscope wheel:

It’s an interesting zodiac wheel, probably used for some sort of horoscope function. If anyone knows exactly what it does, please let me know.

What I do know is that the Chinese are quite superstitious in general (and that’s obviously a large generalisation). They place a lot of importance on the zodiac and predictions (ie horoscope).

Certain years are good years to have children in, so there’s a boom in children in those years. Likewise with marriages. Conversely, there are bad years as well. I’ve heard of people waiting a year to get married, just because the current year doesn’t produce favourable omens for weddings.

All of this reminds me of an article I read recently on chinese horoscope love compatibility. It’s quite an interesting concept – and more than that, it’s quite a bit of fun too.

Anyway, for the record, the Chinese zodiac is a 12 year cycle, with each year named after one of 12 animals, each with different characteristics. Whichever animal is your zodiac sign is said to have a big influence on your personal traits and also on your fortune. The 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac are:

• Ox: 1949,1961, 1973, 1985
• Tiger: 1950,1962, 1974, 1986
• Rabbit: 1951,1963, 1975, 1987
• Dragon: 1952,1964, 1976, 1988
• Snake: 1953,1965, 1977, 1989
• Horse: 1954,1966, 1978, 1990
• Ram: 1955,1967, 1979, 1991
• Monkey: 1956,1968, 1980, 1992
• Rooster: 1957,1969, 1981, 1993
• Dog: 1958,1970, 1982, 1994
• Pig: 1959,1971, 1983, 1995
• Rat: 1960,1972, 1984, 1996

Interestingly, the cat doesn’t appear in the Chinese Zodiac and legend has it that this is because the rat tricked the cat and took his place.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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Tags: culture, zodiac

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 10:37 pm and is filed under Flickr Picks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.