What Are The Chinese Star Signs?

Chinese star signs are closely related to the Chinese lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is composed of five cycles of twelve years each. This makes one complete cycle of the calendar to be sixty years. The star signs are based on these cycles of the lunar calendar. The legend behind this basis for the star signs involves twelve animals. These twelve animals were the only animals to bid farewell to Buddha before he left this world. Each of the animals were then rewarded their own year on the lunar calendar. For each cycle, there is an element associated with it. Therefore, there are a total of 60 Chinese star signs.

The animals that represent each year in the Chinese star signs are as follows:

Rat
Ox
Tiger
Rabbit
Dragon
Snake
Horse
Sheep
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Boar

The elements that represent each of the 5 cycles in the Chinese star signs are as follows:

Wood
Fire
Earth
Metal
Water

Each animal is combined with each element to represent the corresponding year of a corresponding cycle, respectively. These combinations are what make up the Chinese star signs.