Why is the 4th animal in Vietnam a cat, not a rabbit like all the rest of Asian countries celebrating the Lunar New Year?

Chinese New Year is a time to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year for a quarter of the world’s population from different countries and cultures. Currently, Asian countries including China, South Korea, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia,… consider the Lunar New Year as a big New Year occasion to carry out a series of activities and rituals to welcome the new year. .

Lunar New Year welcomes the new year according to the lunar calendar, which is the lunar calendar. This custom can be traced back to the reign of King Yao in China, around 2255 BC, and then spread to other Asian countries. Although different cultures have the same New Year’s Day, each country marks the occasion very differently with special traditional practices.

Why do cats replace rabbits in the list of 12 animals in Vietnam?

According to the twelve zodiac signs in Vietnamese culture, 2023 is the year of the Rabbit, ie the year of the cat, not the year of the rabbit as in China, Korea, Japan, Singapore,… Vietnam is the only country in the world. use the cat as the animal representing the 4th animal, instead of the rabbit. So why is there this difference?

Ancient legend has it that all animals are invited to participate in a race across the river to determine the order of the animals. The mouse tricked the cat in this contest, so the cat could not finish.

However, Vietnamese legends are a bit different. Despite being tricked, the cat still found its way across the river, instead of rabbits appearing in the 12 zodiac signs.

However, the real reason why Vietnam chose cats over rabbits is unverifiable. There is a theory that when the Chinese zodiac animals were introduced to Vietnam, it caused some confusion because the pronunciation of the word “rabbit” in Vietnamese at that time was similar to the word “cat”, making the cat become a one of the 12 zodiac animals.

Another theory explains that in Vietnam, where the climate is hot, rats are a serious pest that troubles farmers. Because cats are the “unrequited enemy” of rats, Vietnamese farmers believe that cats can bring good crops and good rain. So the ancients replaced the rabbit with a cat to express this wish.

The birth of the 12 zodiac animals

Because it has been around for so long, modern people cannot know exactly why the 12 zodiac animals were born, representing consecutive lunar years.

The legend of the 12 Zodiacs is still widely circulated in many Asian countries, with the content recounting that the Jade Emperor was the one who named all the animals in this world. He wanted to choose the most worthy animals to name them for the years, each year there will be an animal reigning to replace the Jade Emperor to rule the earth.

To be able to choose 12 animals from thousands of species, Ngoc Hoang held a contest. As long as they reach heaven first, that animal will be chosen first. The little mouse is the winner of this race of all species. The rabbit, although famous for its agility, only finished in 4th place due to difficulties when crossing the river on the way. Whatever the reason for the birth of the 12 animals, it has become an important cultural feature of many countries in Asia, preserved and developed brilliantly to this day.

Source: sbs.com.au