Chinese Zodiac year is NOT the Chinese lunar year

[geraldc]

So my nephew was born on Thursday night, so we thought he'd be a chicken (Chinese zodiac), as he was born before Chinese new year. However it turns out that the Chinese zodiac is solar not lunar, and the start date for the zodiac year is always the spring vernal equinox, which is 4th Feb every year. So my nephew's a dog. My wife and brother have been having a massive argument about this, and having done the reading, I'm not looking forward to telling my wife that she's wrong when she wakes up tomorrow.

 

For my entire life I thought the Chinese zodiac followed the lunar year, I had no idea the Chinese zodiac year always started on 4 Feb. It's shaken me to the core!

[歐博思]

Like the location of your favorite 'illegal' food stand, a lot of stuff in Chinese astrology can be pretty vague and fleeting.

 

Fun fact: days of the week have an animal too. Thursday?

 

Rat. 

[edelweis]

12-day week?

[歐博思]

That would make for a fantastic weekend indeed! Multiple animals per day.

[Hofmann]

Weeks (旬) were usually 10 days long.

[edelweis]

@Hofmann : like the French revolutionary week, how interesting.

 

@歐博思 : I'm not sure I trust this particular Wikipedia paragraph...

 

@geraldc : how do the month animals work with the solar year? Do Chinese people care about the month animals at all ?

 

[歐博思]

15 hours ago, edelweis said:

I'm not sure I trust this particular Wikipedia paragraph...

 

How about Baidu-pedia then? This one talks about 6 different ancient calendars, among them the one to which OP is referring not being very widespread "干支纪月法未普遍实行，主要为星相家推算八字用".

 

干支记月 isn't widespread like the method your wife is talking about, 干支纪年. My initial impression was that while you should respect your brother-in-law too, ultimately you're only married to one of them 

[Lu]

On 18/02/2018 at 1:40 AM, geraldc said:

I'm not looking forward to telling my wife that she's wrong when she wakes up tomorrow.

To be honest, given what is at stake at either side of the argument (nephew is the wrong animal vs argument with wife), you might want to just back your wife up on this.

 

That said: interesting, I had no idea either! I was born in October, so it's not relevant to me anyway, but still: interesting!

[imron]

4 hours ago, Lu said:

nephew is the wrong animal

Probably the best solution is just to make sure he wears red underwear 2 years in a row.

[Lu]

1 minute ago, imron said:

Probably the best solution is just to make sure he wears red underwear 2 years in a row.

That would certainly be what I would do.

[imron]

Maybe he can be a docken or a chog.

[ZC]

40 minutes ago, imron said:

chog

There must exist a more disgusting sound than this, but I cannot think of it.

 

also if it is truly a major deal, I bet there are people you can pay to do all the astrology and stuff for you (none of them will tell you your nephew is a chog though...)

[DavyJonesLocker]

On 18/02/2018 at 12:40 AM, geraldc said:

So my nephew was born on Thursday night, so we thought he'd be a chicken (Chinese zodiac), as he was born before Chinese new year. However it turns out that the Chinese zodiac is solar not lunar, and the start date for the zodiac year is always the spring vernal equinox, which is 4th Feb every year. So my nephew's a dog. My wife and brother have been having a massive argument about this, and having done the reading, I'm not looking forward to telling my wife that she's wrong when she wakes up tomorrow.

 

 

They must take these things seriously! 

So what's better, a chicken or a dog?

Apparently I'm an ox , but I have as faith in Chinese zodiac signs as astrology. 

 

It is surprising that many Chinese still firmly hold beliefs in these things. Astrology in the West isn't seen in high regard

[ZC]

3 minutes ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

So what's better, a chicken or a dog?

Probably chicken? In my experience if you say someone is a dog it’s quite a bit nastier than saying they are a chicken...

[DavyJonesLocker]

I would have thought a rat or a snake are the worst ones but maybe to Chinese it has different connotations

[imron]

At least everyone is in agreement that Dragons are the best, and the most awesome of all the Chinese zodiac animals ;-)

[ZC]

In my opinion coolness/desirableness in order:

1:Dragon

2:Tiger

3:Horse

4:Monkey

5:Bunny

6:Ox

7:Goat

8:Chicken

9:Rat

10:Dog

11:Snake

12:Pig

[edelweis]

1 hour ago, imron said:

Dragons are the best

Dragons are delusional.

[imron]

Someone's jealous they're not a Dragon

[edelweis]

2 hours ago, imron said:

Someone's jealous they're not a Dragon

So utterly delusional