Nerdy Science Blog

Today is Chinese New Year’s eve. In Chinese culture, family members got to be together on the New Year’s eve.

Tomorrow, which will be 7th February 2008, will be the first day of Chinese calendar. Tomorrow will be Chinese New Year, which is also known as Spring Festival, and it will last for 15 days. Tomorrow is the beginning of the year of rat, and it’s really special. Why is it special? There are twelve Chinese zodiacs, and each zodiac represents one Chinese year. The twelve zodiacs (in order) are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Rat is the first zodiac among the twelves, which means it’s another new cycle of years (twelve years).

There was a tale explains how the animals sequence were assigned. Once upon a time, there were actually thirteen animals fought over the precedence to be listed in the zodiac list. They argued for a long time but there was no solution of how to determine the order. So the Chinese God thought of a smart-ass way. He held a contest by giving these animals task of getting to the opposite shore on the second day. The order of the zodiacs was given on the first come first basis.

The night before, the cat asked the rat to wake it up in the morning, and the rat promised. On the second day, the ox is the most hardworking animal, but it moved slow. So the ox woke up the earliest, and started his journey to the shore. Then the rat woke up and saw the cat was still sleeping soundly. Due to its selfishness, it decided not to wake up the cat. It started to complete the task as well. On the way to the ending, the rat saw the ox. Then its small brain started thinking, “Hmm… It’s a long way to the ending, why should I spend so much energy just to run to the ending.” The rat then told the ox that he was so tiny, and he wished the ox could gave him a ride. The ox was so kind and he agreed to let the rat climbed on its back since it was so light and tiny. When they came to the ending, the rat quickly jumped over the head of the ox and became the first winner. Pig was listed at the last simply because it was the last in the race. Then the cat woke up late and couldn’t make it to the list of twelve zodiacs. This is why cats hate rats forever.

So if you see any of your Chinese friends, please say “Gong Xi Fa Cai” to them. That means “congratulates for earning wealth”.

Although I’m not American, I would like to see Barack Obama wins the Decromats presidential election. Everywhere in the world (except in United States) would like to see Obama win the election. Reason? He looks like a president. Hillary Clinton looks like a robot, talks like a robot, and acts like a robot.

p/s Be gentle to your lab rats in 2008.

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