Through all your houses wandering...

January 1, 2007 12:01 AM

Welcome (well, almost, the roman calendar is a touch early) to the Year of the Fire Pig. See what it means for you as we finish the Fire Dog Year.
posted by gren (40 comments total)

Oh, man, we've only started and already we're alienating the Muslims AND the Jews.
posted by wendell at 12:05 AM on January 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

Woohoo! My year (though technically I'm a water pig)! Rice cake soup for everyone to "eat" another year in age! Happy New Year!
posted by kkokkodalk at 12:19 AM on January 1, 2007

A touch early! You could've waited another 45 days to post this, and you'd still be early.
posted by kisch mokusch at 12:35 AM on January 1, 2007

wait wait, so are these like inherited classes? All this time I've been told that people who are born in years of various animals are like each other.

Now I'm reading about fire pigs and fire dogs, and the descriptions are totally different!

Is a fire pig like a metal pig, except for a few things, or are they totally diffrent!?

I just don't know what to belive!

(that said, "fire pig" would be a sweet name for a band)
posted by delmoi at 12:41 AM on January 1, 2007

This is the first time I've heard of elemental associations for the signs, too (thanks, gren!). It looks like the subdivisions are largely the same with a few extra nuances, although the Fire Rabbit, for example, has a couple traits that are very unlike other Rabbits.

I'm a Wood Rabbit, btw, and the description seems to fit me quite well, though I can't believe that everyone born in 1975 is like that. Which makes me curious about other peoples' perceptions of accuracy in their own signs...
posted by rifflesby at 1:22 AM on January 1, 2007

It was difficult to get into the holiday spirit this year.

Ironically, three sudden high profile deaths within mere days of each other during the holidays - each still receiving extreme worldwide media attention.

Really, pray 2007 is less dramatic and mellow :-)
posted by Bodyguard at 1:46 AM on January 1, 2007

Fire + Pig = Bacon!!!
Man, this is going to be an awesome year!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:04 AM on January 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ironically, three sudden high profile deaths within mere days of each other during the holidays - each still receiving extreme worldwide media attention.

Not sure I'm getting the irony here.

Also, I'm counting two: JB and Saddam Hussein. Who's the third?
posted by sour cream at 2:37 AM on January 1, 2007

Ford
posted by kisch mokusch at 2:52 AM on January 1, 2007

It's ages until Chinese New Year.

This post makes as much sense as one celebrating Valentine's Day.
posted by the cuban at 2:55 AM on January 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

A question. The last year of the Monkey I was told it was the year of the Green Monkey. Was that just because it was the Wood Monkey, or is there a color cycle as well? I can't seem to find anything on this.
posted by sotonohito at 2:58 AM on January 1, 2007

the cuban Actually, here in Japan there's year of the Boar stuff everywhere, and they celebrate the lunar new year during the solar new year, not on the actual Chinese new year date. Don't ask me why.
posted by sotonohito at 3:00 AM on January 1, 2007

It's probably byproduct of the Meiji Restoration.
posted by the cuban at 3:26 AM on January 1, 2007

Fire + Pig = Bacon!!!
Man, this is going to be an awesome year!

"Well we'd have to be talkin' about one charmin' motherfuckin' pig. I mean he'd have to be ten times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I'm sayin'?"
posted by bwg at 3:46 AM on January 1, 2007

Also against the Year God in 2007 are Snake people, and to a lesser degree, Monkey and Tiger people.

In Master Wong’s experience, particularly when combined with other negative astrological influences, it can be fatal. Statistically more people suffer from health problems, have accidents, court cases and die when they are against the Year God.

Well, shit.

Nice knowin' you folks.
posted by Katemonkey at 5:47 AM on January 1, 2007

Calling the Gregorian calendar the "Roman Calendar" is a little like calling a car a horse.
posted by Plutor at 5:49 AM on January 1, 2007

Do you wish people a happy birthday on Jan. 1 too, just because they were born sometime during the year? You realize this exact same thing is going to be posted on the actual Chinese New Year's? I don't know what you were thinking, but it wasn't a good thought.
posted by languagehat at 6:11 AM on January 1, 2007

February 18 2007 is the start of Fire Pig (it changes yearly based on the moon cycle). 2008 is Earth Rat.

rifflesby Which makes me curious about other peoples' perceptions of accuracy in their own signs...

I find it scarily accurate not just for myself but other people who don't even know about it. For example who would have thought Tiger Woods and a Swedish beauty model/maid would truely be happy and not just a "trophy" wife. But check out their signs (Wikipedia) and they are highly compatible (sheep and rabbit) which suggests a solid relationship. I would bet money they don't get divorced. I see this in most long-term relationships, compatible signs.

I have a theory that one reason Chinese society is so harmonious compared to Western is their knowledge of this wisdom (whatever it is, I'm sure there is some scientific explanation that has yet to be discovered - folk wisdom often has basis in scientific truth). The Chinese choose mates based on it, and choose what years to have babies so they are compatible.
posted by stbalbach at 6:14 AM on January 1, 2007

From the AstroLog link:

It can indicate physical floods & large scale water problems - potential for extensive damage and destruction.

Prescient, no?
posted by hifiparasol at 7:03 AM on January 1, 2007

Prescient, no?

Seeing how it's a prediction for 2007, how on earth can we know?

Anyhow, China's problem is lack of water.
posted by the cuban at 7:42 AM on January 1, 2007

Chinese society is so harmonious compared to Western

Um... do you have anything to back this claim up?
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:02 AM on January 1, 2007

Also, I'm counting two: JB and Saddam Hussein. Who's the third?

That's cold, man.
posted by dhartung at 8:25 AM on January 1, 2007

1. Colors

The usual color to element scheme I've seen is:

Red = Fire
Blue/Black = Water
Green = Wood
Yellow = Earth
White = Metal

2. Layered Chinese Astrology

Like Western astrology gets deeply complex with houses and retrograde, etc. Chinese Astrology actually gives you an animal sign not just for the year, but also for the month, day, and hour you were born, producing 4 animals that make up your personality. Also tack on the 5 element system onto the years, and it becomes a lot more complex process than just "What year you were born" on a chinese restaurant foodmat.
posted by yeloson at 8:59 AM on January 1, 2007

Oh, and yeah- Chinese New Year- not for awhile. Lunar calendar, people.
posted by yeloson at 9:01 AM on January 1, 2007

The reason astrological signs *seem* to correlate well with one's own or others' perceived personalities is because people say "oh yeah, that's me" to several highly vague characteristics listed and blithely ignore the ones that don't fit but are unaware of having done so, usually.

I believe there have been studies done looking at the number of characteristics needed to make this work in a way that ordinary variation in human personality *appears* to fit into the workings of these systems.

The same is true for things like "codependence" and other fake diagnoses-- this is why systems like the DSM in psychiatry have to repeatedly test whether they are measuring something real that will be replicated reliably when done by other observers or not.
posted by Maias at 9:02 AM on January 1, 2007

Please repost this on Feb 18, 2007. And give us some lucky money to make up for your poor timing.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 9:27 AM on January 1, 2007

"When you get yourself a pig like this here one, you don't want to eat him all at once."
posted by horsemuth at 9:48 AM on January 1, 2007

Chinese society is so harmonious compared to Western

Um... do you have anything to back this claim up?

Just personal experience and opinion. This isn't Wikipedia.
posted by stbalbach at 10:33 AM on January 1, 2007

Huh. From the links, it would appear that I was born in the year of the Metal Pig. I guess that I'm going to have to get a t-shirt made up because that is the kind of thing that I need to advertise.

quin = Metal Pig.

I think it about sums everything up.
posted by quin at 10:34 AM on January 1, 2007

partner/I are having a baby in Hong Kong in a couple months. I wasn't aware of the variations on the animal years either. Haven't heard about fire-pig... here everyone seems to be referring to 2007 as "golden pig" year. Our due date is almost spot on Chinese New Year, so we're hoping for an "early release", otherwise we face the possibility of no rooms in our preferred hospital as there will be a LOT of folks c-sectioning as soon as it's officially golden-pig.
posted by i blame your mother at 10:56 AM on January 1, 2007

In Korea I've been more used to the color scheme rather than naming elementals. For example my brother was born a White Horse, much to the joy and lament of my mom who said "You know they say a White Horse for a boy is great, but they have a tendency to wander." Oddly though, she's a churchgoer. Syncretism is a funny thing. People still like to get their "Year in advance" zodiac forecasting and it's even a lucrative Internet business tacked onto portal sites to do that around the new year. I almost feel like it's out of habit and tradition rather than real belief. Some people still look up zodiac compatibility before they marry, but it doesn't seem so serious, almost like comparing blood types nowadays. Or new businesses that still do the whole ceremony sticking money in pig's heads for good luck when they open. They're not strictly shamanstic people, but it's still there.
posted by kkokkodalk at 12:03 PM on January 1, 2007

I'm a Wood Rabbit, btw, and the description seems to fit me quite well, though I can't believe that everyone born in 1975 is like that.

As others have noted, this is because horoscopes are intentionally written so vaguely as to apply to essentially all people and essentially all situations.

Which makes me curious about other peoples' perceptions of accuracy in their own signs...

They're amusing. But really, if you want to believe that there's anything to it other than your own projections onto cleverly vague pronouncements, there are only two options:

(1) Your life is partially directed by real and true supernatural forces in the stars and planets. Real, honest, literal supernatural powers are at work in them and upon you. Not metaphors for anything, not ways to understand complex forces, but actual and no-shit supernatural spirits or something of that ilk.

(2) Some manner of natural forces are at work. But the only forces that stars and planets emit that can reach across the inky gulfs of space are electromagnetic radiation, aka light, and gravity. In the first case, there couldn't be any apparent effect from any star's or planet's EM radiation unless you were given birth to outside, at night, on a moonless clear night, with no competing light sources around. In the second case, the gravity from the people around you as you're being born utterly overwhelms the gravity from even mighty Jupiter.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:02 PM on January 1, 2007

Metafilter: quin=metal pig
posted by hifiparasol at 1:16 PM on January 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

As others have noted, this is because horoscopes are intentionally written so vaguely as to apply to essentially all people and essentially all situations.

Yeah, I know that intellectually, but when my given sign seems to fit so well, and the majority of the other signs not as much (or not at all), it gives it a certain truthiness, you know? A little bit eerie.
posted by rifflesby at 2:11 PM on January 1, 2007

\_^^/

[ascii devil horns]
posted by quin at 3:31 PM on January 1, 2007

Trust me folks, it's not early. Just as the day after Thanksgiving is America's signal to start dumping Xmas ornaments on everything and start cranking the bad Xmas music, so too is New Years day, the day little pig posters began replacing the creepy Santa posters on the windows of every noodle house in the Middle Kingdom.

The stores are starting to fill with mechandise, merchandise, MERCHANDISE! Golden piggies fill the shelves. Kitchy kissing pig statuaries are sold for rock bottom prices by street vendors clad in green military coats and hats right out of a Korean war photo, with their three orange teeth clutching a cigarrette and a dire need for their monthly bath.

Pregnant women abound as every red-blooded Chinese man has tried to impregnate his wife so that she'll bear fourth a son in the early days of the year of the pig (too late and he's bacon, no kidding). These children are called the "Golden Pigs" and are supposed to be very lucky. Unfortunately these minor baby boom generations every 12 years fill the schools to overcapacity and cause mayhem in the system. Not so lucky really.

But viddy well, oh my droogies because these little emperors are going to be the stormtroopers for our Chinese overlords 20 years from now! Might be time you brushed up on a little Mandarin, dui bu dui?
posted by Pollomacho at 5:05 PM on January 1, 2007

It's early.

Here in Hong Kong the Christmas decorations are still up.

Oh, they'll be supplanted by Lunar New Year decorations soon enough, but until that happens, it's too early.

There, I said it.

On another note, Metal Pig could be a huge comeback hit for Lee Aaron.

Or not.
posted by bwg at 7:48 PM on January 1, 2007

Fire dog...like a dalmation?
posted by Smedleyman at 8:37 PM on January 1, 2007

Maybe it's a northern thing, 'cause I'm seeing more and more pigs, especially up in Haerbin which was crazy with the pigs and the shoppers, despite the sub-zero temperatures.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:16 PM on January 1, 2007

Maias, may I ask why you think codependence is a fake diagnosis?
posted by nickyskye at 6:34 PM on January 2, 2007