1. transcript
  2. It's time for some quirky numerology ... Year of the Gold Pig

It's time for some quirky numerology ... Year of the Gold Pig

By apalazzo on February 20, 2007.

Yes it is the Fire Golden Pig. Welcome to the economic based renaming of our current astrological year.

I was just told this funny story by Dr J.

This is the year of the Gold Pig in the Chinese calendar. The calendar is based on a repeating cycle of twelve animals ... so that last year was year of the dog and next year is year of the rat. Then superimposed on that cycle is a "heaven cycle" consisting of ten symbols, two symbols for metals, two for wind, two for wood, two for earth and two for fire. Each year the calendar advances by an animal and a heaven symbol. So if one labeled the animals 1 to 12 and the heaven symbols A to J, the calendar would proceed 1A, 2B, 3C .... after 10J the next year would be 11A. The entire cycle takes 60 years to complete (from A1 to J12).

That brings us to our current year. (BTW Happy Chinese New Year!)

i-da8da051e0add8fd4b2b5022d9e5c626-pig.jpgIf you were to follow the calendar count, we should actually be in the year of the Fire Pig ... however in 621AD, during the Tang dynasty, there was a "monetary reform" that generated a big economic boom. Wealth was so great that in 627AD the emperor celebrated by revising the name of the new year from Fire Pig to Golden Pig. This exception to the 60 year cycle was retained for every 60 year cycle, including this year.

And so happy Golden Pig to you!

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