Among the countries that celebrate Lunar New Year, only Vietnam has this zodiac animal. Why is our country not like China or Korea?
In the world, there are many countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year like Vietnam, such as China, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, etc. Most countries in Asia have the concept of 12 zodiac animals and See this as a repeating cycle. Each place has a variation of the 12 zodiac animals, suitable for each country’s culture.
What’s special is that Vietnam is the only country that has cats in the 12 zodiac animals. This is different from countries like China, Japan, Korea,… when they choose the rabbit as their symbol. In other words, the cat is a zodiac animal that only Vietnam has.
There are many explanations for this difference. First is the story associated with the legend. Accordingly, when participating in the contest to go to heaven to win a spot in the 12 zodiac animals, the mouse tricked the cat. In Vietnam, the cat finally overcame difficulties to finish fourth. Meanwhile, in legends of other countries, it was not successful so it was replaced by a rabbit.
The second way of reasoning is based on pronunciation. When the Chinese zodiac animals were introduced to Vietnam, the pronunciation of the word “rabbit” sounded very similar to the word “cat”. That’s why the Vietnamese have included cats in the 12 zodiac animals.
The third hypothesis is associated with Vietnam’s weather characteristics. Our country is a hot country, rats are especially harmful to crops. Cats are considered enemies of mice, and are much more popular than rabbits. Ancient people replaced rabbits with cats to express their desire to have an animal that could overcome mice and bring good harvests.
One more interesting thing about the 12 zodiac animals, the only zodiac animal that is not real but appears in all countries is the dragon. Until now, no one has dared to confirm the existence of dragons and what kind of animal it is specifically. In Asian culture, dragons are mythical creatures, divine symbols and associated with royalty.
According to the perpetual calendar, 2024 is the year of the heavenly stem Giap and the earth branch Thin. Called Giap Thin. Dragon is this year’s mascot, covering everywhere in Vietnam in particular and Asian countries in general.
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