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The
Beginning of the Chinese Zodiac
How did each animal get assigned a year? Well, a long, long
time ago, the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals together
to assign each of them a year. In other variations, the
emperor summons the animals to a banquet. But it would be
a race. Whoever got there first would be given the first
year, whoever got there second, got the second year and
so on. When the cat heard the news, he let his friend the
rat know about it and the two animals decided to go together
the next day. But the next day the rat did not wake the
cat so that he could get a jump on the race. Therefore,
the cat did not make it on time and did not get a year.
This is why there is no year of the cat and it is also why
cats hate rats.The rat knew that a small animal like him
would not be able to compete with the others, so he begged
the ox to let him ride on his nose. The ox allowed the rat
to ride on his nose off they went together. Just when they
were about to arrive, the rat jumped off the ox's head and
got through the finish line first. The ox finished close
behind, but was still second. This is why the year of the
rat is the first year in the cycle and the year of the ox
is the second.
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