Today marks the start of the Chinese New Year also known as the Lunar New Year. It occurs with the appearance of the full moon set for tonight.
The Chinese New Year and Zodiac is based upon animals with this year being the Year of the Horse. And not just any horse; this year it is the Fire Horse. The following description is from a recent Parade article:
The Chinese zodiac is similar to the Western zodiac, only all of their signs are animals (click here.) The horse is the seventh sign following last year’s The Year of the Snake.
I had once read somewhere that the Chinese zodiac came about as a result of a race among the animals and the zodiac’s order was determined by how the race contestants finished. Knowing that the rat and 5 other animals including the snake finished ahead of the horse made me me wonder – how did that happen? Well, here is that explanation: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac
I went looking for horse songs, but for some reason landed instead on Chris Stapelton’s tribute to Mr. Bad Ass himself – Clint who will turn 96 in May of this year. Talk about possessing fire horse energy. His birth year was 1930 making his Chinese sign a horse (see chart below.)
To save you from having to look it up, you-know-who was born in 1946 making his Chinese sign a dog. I am thinking that some of you would have lost money betting that it was either the snake or the rat.