The Year of the Tiger

Sunday will be the start of a whole new year on the Chinese calendar, and it's the Year of the Tiger.  The Chinese New Year is a really good time to celebrate, because it's a holiday that lasts for several days.  It is also sometimes called the Spring Festival.  Personally, I am not a Tiger because I was born in a Horse year.  In fact, nobody in our house is a Tiger.  Gabe is an Ox, Mel is a Hare, Barry is a Snake, and Mom is a Dragon.  But we can still celebrate the Chinese New Year because any excuse to celebrate is a good one!

The Chinese Zodiac has twelve signs, and they are all animals, and one of the animals is even a dog!  So since there are twelve different animal signs, the year of your sign will come around once every twelve years.  I don't know why they made it this way, they just did.  And then each year is not just a particular animal, but it is also a certain element, such as wood, water, fire, metal, or earth.  And by "earth," I think they mean "dirt," but "earth" is a nicer name for it.

So anyway, 2010 is the Year of the Metal Tiger.  The last time there was a Metal Tiger Year was 1950.  Some of the in-depth research articles I looked at called this the Golden Tiger Year, and others said it was the Year of the White Tiger.  So I'm not sure what to call the metal part, but I learned that the Tiger stands for courage and some other stuff like power, passion, and daring.  Tigers can also be rebellious and unpredictable and careless, so I think it's probably smart to keep a good eye on them.  But don't criticize them too much because if you do, they might get depressed.

People who are born in a Metal Tiger year are extra strong, but they also want to claw their way to the top, and they can be mean and ruthless while they are doing that.  Besides which, they can have bad tempers and get really mad sometimes.  So if you were planning to have a baby in 2010, maybe you should wait until 2011, which will be the year of the Metal Hare.  Except when I read about Metal Hares, they didn't  sound a whole lot nicer than Metal Tigers.  But if you wait until 2012 to have a baby, you can have a Water Dragon, which is what Mom is, and they are really, really nice people!

But now I will tell you what is predicted for everybody in this Year of the Tiger.  There's this man in Singapore named Master Tan Khoon Yong, and he knows about these things, and what he said was that this year could be bad for everybody.  Here's an exact quote of what he said:  "In tiger year, everybody is quite hot tempered and emotional impulse, easy to affront other people, some people possibly will get rid to fight with others, therefore, everybody may land in lawsuits."  He also said lots of people will have health problems.

So I think we should all be very careful this year and not get anybody mad at us so that we don't land in a lawsuit.  Mom said this means that we dogs should not bite anybody because she doesn't want to get sued and have to go to jail.  And we don't want her to go to jail either because if she did, who would feed us?

Anyway, have a happy Year of the Tiger, but be very careful not to make anybody get mad at you!  And take good care of yourself so you don't get sick either!