2018 is the Year of the Dog!
Chinese New Year begins on February 16th this year. Happy dog year everyone!
Are you partdog too? I’ve always had an affinity for dogs, but then I found out while visiting a Chinese food restaurant that I AM partdog. That explains a lot.
In the Chinese Zodiac, there are 12 animals, that are assigned based on the year of a person’s birth. This is the order of the 12 year cycle: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, money, rooster, dog, and pig. These animals are used to represent or predict qualities of personality, or life events.These animal signs describe how others perceive you, or how you present yourself.
While doing a bit more research on the topic of the Chinese Zodiac, I discovered that “there are also animal signs assigned by month (called inner animals), by day (called true animals) and hours (called secret animals).”However, for our purposes we will stick to the big picture of the basicsof the Chinese Zodiac.
The Dog is the 11th sign, associated with Autumn and Earth. Here are the years of the Dog: 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 206, 2018, 2030…
This sign is associated with dog-like loyalty, readiness to help others, and exuberance. (of course!)
People born in the year of the Dog may be endowedwithsome lovely dog personality traits: honest, amiable, kind, cautious, prudent, loyal, reliable, considerate, understanding, patient, hard-working, and sincere. Dogs are always ready to help others.These characteristics of being friendly, trustworthy, steadfast and kind are the very reasons people have become so close with dogs in the first place.
On the down side, dogs are not big talkers, so people born under this sign may not have great communication skills and may leave the impression that they are stubborn. However, dogpeopleare born with a good nature, seek a happy life, and keep active outdoors, which improves overall health. This is especially true when combined with enough rest, which benefits both physical and mental health.
Dog people tend to seek fulfilling work that helps others, due to their gregariousness, dedication and empathy. Being easygoing, friendly and hard working with unwavering keenness, makes people born in the year of the Dog popular in work circles.
In terms of relationships, dog people may be slow to make close friends or to attach themselves wholy. But when they do… they are intensely loyal. According to the zodiac, people born in the year of the dog are most compatible with rabbit people. Dog people can formcomplementary relationships with monkey, rat, tiger and pig, buthave just average suitability with ox, snake, horse and dog, and are the least harmonious with thedragon, goat orrooster.
Whether or not you feel these characteristics are truly accurate based on the year of your birth, it is interesting to learn about and perhaps reassuringto think that there are so few kinds of people in the world. Diversity is great, but with more understanding of each other, we can all get along a lot more easily.
As I’m sure you’ll agree, dogs are amazing, so I feel especially honoured to be part dogafter all.
