A Ratty New Year (by Guat Cheng)

7 February 2008 hailed in the Year of the Rat for the Chinese. The Rat Year starts the twelve year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. Each of the 12 years is named after a different animal which imparts its characteristics to the year and to the people born in that year.

Many websites on the internet say pretty much the same thing about the Chinese calendar and the animal signs. The personality traits aspect of each animal sign was developed, refined and have withstood the test of time over more than 3,000 years. It must hold some truth. You be the judge.

However, things are not as simple as merely reading the text relating to the year of birth. There are some complexities. The calendar has a 60 year cycle with each zodiac animal appearing five times in the cycle – once for each of five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water in that order. Each element imparts its influence on the animal. Thus the Wood Rat is not quite like the Water Rat. Similarly, the Fire Rat, Earth Rat and Metal Rat are variations of the Rat. The 12 months of the year are each represented by these same 12 animals. So too, the time of birth, as each day is divided into 12 two-hour segments. This gives us a total of 720 different personality types for each animal sign! So, have fun figuring yourself out!

There are several myths about how the twelve animals were chosen and assigned. One myth has it that a Chinese emperor had invited all his animal friends to a Chinese New Year party. Only 12 animals responded. The first to arrive was the rat, followed by the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and finally the pig.

My favourite myth in the one handed down to me by my mum. It involves an animal race and the winner was the rat. The rat? How did it beat the other animals? As far as I can remember from my childhood days and from my now more adult analysis and rationale, the story goes like this:

An emperor of long, long ago invited all the animals to race among themselves to determine the 12 fastest. These would take turns to be Animal of the Year. All wanted to have the honour of leading each 12-year cycle. The race started. The mighty tiger had bounded off and was leading (of course!). The fast-hopping rabbit was not far behind. The ox was third. The rat was still asleep, having been up all night (as rats do). Hearing the commotion outside his hole, he stirred, then realising that the race had begun, he had to act fast. He peeped out of his hole and saw the ox. He jumped on Ox’s back. “Giddy up friend!” he squealed. But to no avail. Ox was too slow. He had to do something. He sank his teeth into Ox’s ear, gave him a pain shot and Ox leapt forward, overtaking Rabbit. One more pain shot from Rat, and Ox whizzed past Tiger. The finish line was just ahead. Rat wasn’t about to take second place…oh, no…not good enough! With quick-thinking mode switched on, he smiled somewhat deviously. Just as Ox was approaching the line, Rat jumped off his nose and the rest is history. Since then the zodiac has Rat in first place, followed closely by Ox, and Tiger in third position.

A fascinating story. An intriguing story. To me it is also one that inspires hope. The lowly rat, despised and living out of sync (remember he sleeps all day), triumphs over all. Size is not intimidating. Speed is relative. When one starts off is not an issue. Vision, quick-thinking, courage, determination and hard work (jabbing in through ox-hide is tough work) contributed to Rat’s success. Of course he added a dash of cunning!

What are the traits of the Rat? An extract from Wikipedia, the community web encyclopedia, describes the positive side of Rats:

“Being the first sign of the Chinese zodiac, rats are leaders, pioneers and conquerors. They are charming, passionate, charismatic, practical and hardworking. Rat people are endowed with great leadership skills and are the most highly organized, meticulous, and systematic of the twelve signs. Intelligent and cunning at the same time, rats are highly ambitious and strong-willed people who are keen and unapologetic promoters of their own agendas, which often include money and power. They are energetic and versatile and can usually find their way around obstacles, and adapt to various environments easily. A rat's natural charm and sharp demeanor make it an appealing friend for almost anyone, but rats are usually highly exclusive and selective when choosing friends and so often have only a few very close friends whom they trust.”

On the negatives Wikipedia has this to say:

“Behind the smiles and charm, rats can be terribly obstinate and controlling ....”

To me, the positives seem to outweigh the negatives, and the idea of starting anew is both encouraging and invigorating. I invite you to join in and make this a happy year of new beginnings and may we enjoy the energy, drive, determination, and success of the Rat. Should we need some living inspiration, how about keeping a couple of rats as pets? Maybe not! How about some pet mice?

The chart below shows the last full 60-year cycle (from Wood to Water) plus two completed 12-year cycles in relation to the Rat which also corresponds to the full Chinese calendar cycle as the Rat is the first sign of all cycles.

Wood Rat 5 Feb 1924 - 24 Jan 1925

Fire Rat 24 Jan 1936 - 10 Feb 1937

Earth Rat 10 Feb 1948 - 28 Jan 1949

Metal Rat 28 Jan 1960 - 14 Feb 1961

Water Rat 15 Feb 1972 - 2 Feb 1973

Wood Rat 2 Feb 1984 - 19 Feb 1985

Fire Rat 19 Feb 1996 - 6 Feb 1997

Earth Rat 7 Feb 2008 - 25 Jan 2009

As you can see, we are now in the year of the Earth Rat – the start of the middle 12-year cycle.

Guat Cheng is an office administrator part-time and full-time mother of four. The latest addition to her family are two little adorable mice. The article above is inspired by them.