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 biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage ...

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 The Chinese zodiac is a traditional classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Originating from China, the zodiac and its variations remain ...

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 sp ...

with the

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

. 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

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietnamese zodiac Vietnamese culture Vietnamese astrology

Zodiac

See also

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