12 Animals of Chinese Calendar

Rat Ox Tiger Hare Dragon Snake Horse Sheep Monkey Rooster Dog Boar

2001 is the Year of the Snake
2002 is the Year of the Horse
2003 is the Year of the Ram (sheep, goat)

Numeric Counting Systems

A calendar system needs, first of all, a way to count the years. Since there are many numeric counting systems, the Chinese calendar uses a unique counting system (sexagenary cycles).

The binary system has 2 numbers: 0 and 1.

The decimal system has 10 numbers: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

The hexadecimal system has 16 numbers: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F

The sexagenary system uses 10 numbers in the "first" ( or heavenly stem) positions and 12 numbers in the "second" ( or earthly branch) positions.
These make up a total of 60 numbers.
The 12 numbers in the second (earth) positions are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Animal Representation
As a way to help with memorization (like "A is for Apple" in American Alphebet books), each of the 12 numbers in the second (earthly branch) is also represented by an "animal."
- In English,

Rat Ox Tiger Hare Dragon Snake Horse Sheep Monkey Rooster Dog Pig
- In Chinese,

How to write the Chinese words of the twelve animals
Go to this site.

Names of month in Islamic lunar calendar
The names of the lunar months are: Maharrem, Safar, Rabi' Al-Awwal, Rabi' Al-Akhar, Jamada Al-Akhirah, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadhan, Shawwal, Zul-Qi'dah, and Zul-Hijjah.

Names of months in English-speaking countries
In English, the names of the 12 months are:
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Zodiac
The 12 animals of the Chinese calendar are widely adopted and used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Zodiacs.
Vietnamese Zodiac
The Vietnamese adopts the 12 animals of the Chinese calendar, with the exception of the 4-th animal. The rabbit is replaced by the cat.
Ty', Su*?u, Da^`n, Me.o, Thi`n, Ti., Ngo. , Mu`i, Tha^n, Da^.u, Tua^'t , Ho*.i

New Year Page Home Page Sound problems