Podcast: Chinese Newyear
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Podcast: Chinese Newyear

Legend of the Chinese Zodiac

When the Emperor of Heaven and Earth decided it would be useful to measure the seasons, he turned to the animal kingdom for help. Each year of the 12-year cycle of the calendar would be marked with an animal. Many animals were enthusiastic, and that was the problem – there were too many candidates. Everyone wanted a spot as a constellation. A competition followed, the twelve winners were given a spot.

The task seemed simple: all the animals had to cross a river with a particularly strong current. The first twelve to reach the other side would win a spot. For some animals the task was easy, others had to ask their friends for help. The cat and the rat, both poor swimmers, asked the ox for help. They wanted to hitch a ride on his back so that all three of them could finish. The ox happily agreed. Although the ox was slow, he was a strong swimmer and soon took the lead.

The cat and the rat were happy with the ox, but the rat wanted to be sure of a place and pushed the cat off the ox's back into the water. Once they reached the bank, the rat took first place and the ox took second place.

Close behind them came the tiger. Tired from swimming against the current, but happy to end up in third place. Then came the rabbit in fourth place, although not unharmed. He had to jump from stone to stone and made a misstep. Fortunately, he was able to climb onto a floating piece of wood and was carried to the bank by the wind.

Next came the dragon, which effortlessly floated through the clouds to land on the bank. The emperor was not happy, however, because he thought the dragon had failed. After all, the dragon had the advantage of being able to fly. The emperor demanded an explanation from the dragon. The charitable dragon explained that he had been delayed because he had helped a farmer put out a fire in his field and had helped the rabbit blow to the bank. Moved by the dragon's charity, the emperor gave him fifth place.

Then the horse galloped out of the river, determined to take sixth place. However, he was startled when the snake slithered up. The horse reared up, giving the snake sixth place and the horse seventh.

Not long after, the sheep, goats, and roosters followed. The three had worked together to cross the river on a raft. Once on land, the rooster and the monkey decided that the sheep deserved eighth place, because they had provided much peace when the rest of the group panicked during the journey. The rooster and the monkey finished in ninth and tenth place.

Soon, the rest saw a dog appear. This was the best swimmer of the group, so everyone had expected the dog to be a sure winner. However, the dog was having too much fun playing in the water that it no longer thought about the competition.

The eleven winners waited impatiently for the final winner of the competition. Who would it be? Suddenly there was a loud grunt. The pig, hungry from crossing the road, had been looking for food and had taken a nap. Because of all the commotion, it woke up and was afraid that there were no more places available. The pig became the twelfth winner.

The cat, washed up on the wrong side, watched bitterly from a distance as the emperor chose his champions. The cat plotted revenge and since then cats have been the enemies of rats.