The Vietnamese zodiac (
Vietnamese: ''Mười hai con giáp'') is the traditional Vietnamese classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an
animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating 12-year cycle. Instead of centuries, the Viet lunar calendar is divided into 60-year cycles known as ''hồi''. Each of these consists of five 12-year animal cycles.
Zodiac
The Vietnamese zodiac is similar to the
Chinese zodiac in its usage and arrangement of animals, but replaces the
ox with the
water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...
and the
rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
with the
cat. The
Sino-Vietnamese name for the year of the cat/rabbit is Mão/Mẹo(卯) which is very similar in pronunciation to the native Vietnamese word Mèo for cat.
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/M%C3%A3o ]
See also
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Vietnamese calendar
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Vietnamese dragon
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vietnamese zodiac
Vietnamese culture
Vietnamese astrology