Year of the Cat

Although China and other parts of Asia are celebrating the year of the rabbit, Vietnam is ringing in the year of the cat.

These days, though, the idea of hopping back to the rabbit would be highly disagreeable to most Vietnamese.

Besides the cat, the other 11 zodiac signs are ox, tiger, dragon, snake, rat, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each is believed to bring its own unique characteristic to the cycle.

“It’s appropriate that the Vietnamese swapped the cat into the calendar in place of the rabbit. Rabbits are a kind of rodent and the rat is also a rodent. The animals in the zodiac should be different,” said pet enthusiast Nguyen Bao Sinh.

“The cat helps offset the dog, its natural enemy,” said Sinh, who runs a pet hotel. “This expresses a balance of yin and yang in the cosmos that is more complete, that better unifies the contradictions, and so it is richer and better to have the cat,” he added

In China, the rabbit is thought one of the happiest signs, with people born in that year renowned for their kindness, reliability and loyalty, though with an air of mystery.

In Vietnam, rabbits are considered food. Cats also appear on the occasional menu as “little tigers”, although the practice of eating them is technically banned.

“The image of the cat is cultured and the nature of a cat is gentle, sociable and close to people,” said Hoang Ngoc Bao, a veterinarian and cat enthusiast. “I want that gentleness, that sociability that is special to cats to make our society better so that we can live for the community and more humanely.”

Submitted by J. Lauren Benton

Source courtesy of www.reuters.com

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