What is the zodiac behind the Year of the Tiger?

The year of the tiger is followed by the year of the rabbit.

Tiger is the third of the 12 zodiac signs, and it belongs to the yin among the 12 branches, so it is also called "tiger time" from 3 am to 5 am at 12 o'clock every day. The Year of the Tiger is counted from beginning of spring in the twenty-four solar terms, because the year of the Zodiac is attached to the year of the dry branch, which is the year method of the dry branch calendar. The same is true of the official almanac of past dynasties (that is, the Yellow Calendar).

Rabbit is the fourth of the 12 zodiac animals. It belongs to the twelve branches of the earth, so twelve o'clock in the day is also called "rabbit time"-from five to seven in the morning.

12 Chinese zodiac signs

The zodiac is an intuitive representation of the twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi (mouse), Ugly (ox), Yin (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Chen (dragon), Si (snake), Wu (horse), Wei (sheep), Shen (monkey), You (chicken) and Xu (chicken).

In this way, a concept interpretation system has been formed, which has become an image philosophy in folk culture, such as the zodiac in marriage, the blessing in temple fairs, the animal year and so on. In modern times, more people regard the zodiac as the mascot of the Spring Festival and become a symbol of entertainment and cultural activities.

As a long-standing symbol of folk culture, the zodiac has left a lot of poems, Spring Festival couplets, paintings, calligraphy and paintings and folk arts and crafts that depict the image and symbolic meaning of the zodiac. Apart from China, many countries in the world issue stamps of the zodiac during the Spring Festival to express their wishes for the New Year in China.