2008 Chinese Astrology - The Year of The Rat
Chinese New Year Days
| China Time Zone | US PST Time Zone |
|
February
7, 2008 |
February
6, 2008 |
|
2009 Chinese Astrology of Barara Obama |
Year 2008 is a Chinese
Brown Earth (Soil) Rat Year. Why did the Chinese name
the year 2008 as the Brown Earth Rat Year? Chinese calendar used the Stem-Branch system to count the days, months and years. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in
this system. Stems are named by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth). The Stem sequence order is
Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Metal, Yin Metal, Yang Water and Yin Water. Branches use the animal names.
The Branch sequence order is
Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig. Stem and Branch are used together to form a cycle of 60 counting systems which begin
with 
Wooden Rat and end with
Water Pig. You can see the entire sequence from the Chinese New Year's page. From 1924 to 1983 is a complete cycle. Year 2008 is
Female Earth Rat 
,
the 25th of the Stem-Branch in the system. Because
Earth is equivalent to the color
Brown in the Five-Element system,
Year 2008 is also called the Brown Rat year.
Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year day is on February
7th, 2008. This day is a new moon day, it is the first day of the first Chinese lunar month
in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. The exact new moon time is at 11:44 on
07-Feb-08 in China time zone.
If we apply Chinese lunar calendar system on the USA time zones, we find something interesting here. In the US Pacific Standard Time (PST), the new moon time is at 19:44 of 2-06-08. In the US Eastern Standard Time (EST), the new moon time is at 22:44 of 2-06-08. Therefore, the Chinese New Year day for USA time zones is on February 6th, 2008.
The new moon time is at 03:44 on 2-07-08 of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and at 04:44 on 2-07-08 of Time Zone GMT+1. That means Chinese New Year day is on February 7th, 2008 for European countries.
The Year 2008 (Brown Rat) is the 4705th Chinese year. The Chinese believe that the first king of China was the Yellow King (he was not the first emperor of China). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C., therefore China will enter the 4705th year on February 4th, 2008. Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle of 60 Stem-Branch counting systems and the Brown Rat is the 25th Stem-Branch in the cycle. Since 4705 = (60 *78) + 25, therefore this Brown Rat Year is the 4705th Chinese Year.
Some web sites say the year 2008 is the 4706th Chinese year. If you cannot find the explanation, here is a possible answer for you: The Yellow King's inauguration was held in the spring of 2697 B.C. But the day that was used as the first day of the year was the winter solstice, which was around December 23rd, 2698 B.C. Today's January 1st meant nothing to the Yellow King. If we count that extra eight days in 2698 B.C., then year 2008 is the 4706th Chinese year.
The First Day of Brown Rat Astrology Year
In China's time zone, the first day of the Brow Rat Year is February 4th, 2008, because February 4th, 2008 is the first day of Tiger month and the Tiger month is the first month of the year in Chinese Fortune-Telling Calendar system.
In the Chinese Fortune-Telling calendar, the first day of the first month, Tiger month, is called "Start of Spring", which is when the sun enters the 315th degree on the tropical zodiac. In the China's time zone, the time of the Start of Spring is at Feb-04 19:00. So the first day of the Brown Rat year 2008 is on 04-Feb-08.
The time of the Start of Spring is on Feb-04 at 06:00 for US EST zone and on Feb-04 at 03:00 for US PST zone. So the first day of Brown Rat Year in USA is same in China's time zone.
People born in late January or early February may be confused about their birth year Chinese astrology animal signs. This is because it is a common misconception that the astrology animal signs begin on the Chinese New Year day. Actually, Astrology animal signs are base on the Start of Spring, the first day of astrology year. For example, if a baby was born on Feb-05 2008 before the Chinese New Year Day, then its animal sign is the Rat because the birthday is after the Start of Spring. If you are still confused about your animal sign, we have an Animal Sign page for people to verify their Chinese birth year animal signs.
Rat is Number One
The sequence of 12 astrology animals is
.
Rat ranks number 1 in the 12 calendar animals. There is a related story for
children. Once the God of Heaven wanted to choose 12 animal names as the
sequence of the calendar. He announced to hold an animal racing to determine the
order. When the racing date is closing, Cat forgot the time and asked Rat the
schedule. Alert Rat gave Cat the wrong time on purpose. Smart Rat stayed on the
horn of Ox while crossing the river, then jumped over the bank to reach the
final line to win the champion. Cat missed the racing time and swear to kill Rat
for generations. That's why Cat always chase Rat forever.
The odd number is Yang and the even number is Yin. Therefore, Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse Monkey, Dog are Yang (Male) Animals. Cow, Rabbit, Snake, Sheep, Chicken and Pig are Yin (Female) animals. The one saying about the animal sequence is something to do with animal toes and paws.
Tiger, Dragon, Monkey and Dog have five toes or paws. Horse has a single toe. Cow, Rabbit, Sheep, Chicken and Pig have four toes or paws. Snake has no toes, but it has fork-like tongue. Rat has 4-toe in the front legs and 5-toe in the back legs.
The front leg of Rat has 4 toes and back leg has 5 toes. The Rat hour is from
23:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M., which cover late night and early morning. Rat is rank
number one, which is Yang (odd) number. But contains
Female Water, according to Chinese astrology calendar. Water in Chinese
astrology represents cold, black, wisdom and lust.
Rat is a very alert, coward, quick, sly, ambitious and smart animal. Human still learn something from rats. When all rats run away from a building with no reason, we should run and leave the building soon too. Ancient Chinese won't get on a ship without rats, because that's not normal.
Rat is in the Water group. Snake and Horse are in the Fire group. Fire is afraid of Water. They said Horse will die after eating the waste of Rat. Weasel like Rat can fight and kill Snake.
Love and Marriage
Rat is very easy to breed and it can reach sexual maturity at 5 weeks of age.
Rats do not recognize incest. So the rat reproduction speed is very fast. In
Chinese astrology, Rat is a Lust Star, which
has a noble term - Romantic Star. Rat is the
Romantic Star only for people born in year of Rabbit, Sheep or Pig. If Rabbit,
Sheep and Pig people look for the love, they have more chance to meet the
opposite sex. If they are already in love, they have chance to talk about the
marriage in 2008.
Years of Rabbit are 1927, 1939, 1951 1963, 1975 and 1987.
Years of Sheep are 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979 and 1991.
Years of Pig are 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971 and 1983.
The first day of a Chinese astrology year is around on February 4. To click here to find your animal sign.
For the chance of a marriage, we need to find any Spouse Star or Attraction Relationship coming from the current Brown Rat cycle. But you need to find your Day Master (The Upper row of the Day column) in the your Chinese birth chart.
2008 is Male Earth Rat year. The Earth is the Spouse
Star for a man born on the Day of Male Wood
or
Female Wood
. Male Earth and
Female Water
have the attraction relationship. Therefore
Female Water
and
Wood
men have more chance to meet the female
in 2008. If
they have good relationship with their girls now, they can think about the marriage,
specially for the ones born in years of Rabbit, Sheep and Pig.
The Earth is the Spouse
Star for a woman born on the Day of Water
and . If
Water women are already in love and born in years of Rabbit, Sheep and Pig, they
have chance to talk about the marriage. The marriage for Female
Water woman is quite possible because Male Earth and Female Water
have the attraction relationship. If you can find additional
Branch Attraction Relationship between birth
chart and the cycle, then that's a plus for a good marriage.
If the marriage doesn't happen in 2008 for above-mentioned people still have very good chance and relationship with their boy or girl friends.
Find Your Lucky Element
2008 is Brown Rat year. Brown is Earth and Rat is Water.
Basically, people
will be luckier if the Earth or Water are their lucky element.
However, Earth and Water are opposite elements. 2008 won't be one of their best
years in their life, unless birth chart animal signs have a special combination.
If your lucky element is Water...
2007 is a Fire Pig year. 2008 is a Brown Rat year. Pig and Rat are in the Water group. 2007 is the first year of the Water cycle. 2008 is the second year of the Water cycle. Water of 2008 is stronger than the Water in 2007. If Water is your lucky element, then your luck come in 2008. If you think you were lucky in 2007, the your luck will be continue good or even better in 2008.
If your Birth Chart and your
Current Major Cycle contain Dragon and Monkey, then 2008 will be an extremely good
year for you.
This is because Rat, Dragon and Monkey 
together have the
Mutual Attraction Relationship
and generate very powerful Water energy. The luck will be even better, if
your birth chart or current major cycle have Male Water 
in there.
If your lucky element is Earth...
Your luck will come around four season changes. If your Birth Chart
or your
Current Major Cycle contain Cow, then 2008 will be an very special year to you. This is
because Rat and Cow 
together have the
Attraction Relationship into Earth. The
energy of Water disappears and the Earth
of 2008 brings the Earth under the birth chart to the top. The year 2008 becomes
a power Earth year.
Forecast using the theory of Five Elements
To forecast our luck in the coming years, we first have to know what elements and animals are in our Birth Chart from Find Your Lucky Element page.
2008 is the year of
Male Brown Rat. Brown is equivalent to Earth in Five Element theory. The major
element in Rat is Water. Earth and Water are opposite
elements. Earth and Water have a conflicting and fighting relationship; and
therefore it is hard for them to coexist. In most of cases, if your Lucky Element
is Earth, then the Water is an unlucky element. If the Lucky Element is Water,
then Earth is the unlucky element. If Earth or Water is equivalent to your Money
Star, then your money luck in 2008 should be "money comes, then money goes" or
"money goes, then comes". If Earth or Water is the Career Star, then career
opportunity either come early or come late in 2008. If Earth or Water represent
health, then your heath will be either good or bad, however it will be the
opposite at the end of the year. In short, you will win some but lose some.
How to Pinpoint to the Lucky Days?
People are always interested to know which days their luck will come. The answer is that we need to study the Stems and Branches relationships among Daily, Monthly, Yearly, Current Major Cycles and the Birth Chart to determine if the good luck will come or not.
There is an easy and simple way to find your really lucky day. First, the current Year must mainly contain your Lucky Element. Next, you look for the Month mainly contains your Lucky Element in the Stem and Branch systems. Then look for days that will contain mainly your Lucky Element. The theory is that Year brings Lucky Element into the Month; Month gathers the energy of Lucky Element and Day triggers the luck out. To find the Five Elements on certain month or date in from the following links. The easy way is from Chinese Fortune Angel astrology software.
Find Monthly Five Elements
Find Daily Five Elements
List Five Elements for next 15 days
What Will Happen To You? Any Money Luck?
It requires many steps to foresee your fortune from our web site. To make it easy for you, we have created a Free Daily Chinese Astrology for you. When 2008 comes, then you can see the Chinese Astrology prediction for your daily, monthly and yearly cycles. Our Chinese Astrology focuses on your Money, Career and Fame.
You are welcome to visit our site daily. We recommend that you come to check your fortune every month.
If you are interested in Chinese astrology and your daily luck, try our Free Daily Chinese Astrology.
If you are serious about Chinese astrology, then try your
Year 2008 Chinese Astrology and
Major Cycles Astrology.
If you are interested in your love relationship and marriage luck in 2008,
the try
Angel love Match reports.
Feng Shui 2008
|
Find the special relationships between year 2008 and the houses is from
Feng Shui Flying Stars page.
More detailed information in the |
| Direction | Simple Suggestion |
| East (8) | The Money Star rotates into eastern direction. The white color system such as white crystal or Water related object can improve money luck. |
| Southeast (9) | The Happy Star is in here. Purple color crystal, painting or carpet can enhance the luck of love relationship or buying property. |
| South (5) | Don't let elder or weak people sleep in this direction and don't do the home improvement either. |
| Southwest (7) | The Pressure Star in this corner. Use Water related object to release the pressure. |
| West (3) | The Argument Star lets people have poor people relationship. Use purple system to improve communication skill |
| Northwest (2) | Any people have bedroom here need to watch the health. |
| North (6) | People look for instant money luck can put yellow crystal or water related object to improve the luck. |
| Northeast (4) | This location is good for children to study their home work. |
| Center (1) | The Romantic Star rotates is here. Use pink system to enhance the romantic luck. Pink crystal or Water related object will help. |
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