Chinese New Year 2022: February 1, 2022, i.e Tuesday will be celebrated as the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated at the rise of the second moon after the winter solstice and is also known as the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival. The celebration for the holiday that is celebrated by almost two billion people across the globe, will last for two weeks. While the celebrations are set to begin for the festival full of culture and tradition, many are wondering why Google is displaying Tiger image when they type Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year in the search engine?
This is happening because each year is associated with one of the 12 zodiac animals which are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. And the year 2022 is the year of the tiger, while 2021 was the year of the ox, therefore, Google Search has added a neat Easter egg to help celebrate the Year of the Tiger, as the animal designations of the zodiacs are always used in the similar sequential order.
Also read: Lunar New Year 2022: Date, History, and Significance of Chinese New Year
Every zodiac represents some or the other qualities and those who are born in the year of the tiger are said to be courageous leaders brimming with enthusiasm and self-confidence.
Not just this, but these strong traits work especially well with their remarkable generosity, natural ability to sympathise, and endless commitment to helping others.
For the unversed, the Chinese lunisolar calendar counts its years as per the stem-branch system, which is a 60-year rotating name system also called the Chinese sexagenary cycle. And as per this, a year’s name contains two parts – the first is the celestial stem and the other is the terrestrial branch.
The celestial stems are also known as the heavenly elements and are taken from the rotating list of 10 terms concerning the yin/yang form of five elements which are:
Stem/Element
jia = yang wood
yi = yin wood
bing = yang fire
ding = yin fire
wu = yang earth
ji = yin earth
geng = yang metal
xin = yin metal
ren = yang water
gui = yin water
While, the terrestrial, or the earthly, branch is taken from the 12 animal names of the Chinese zodiac which are:
Branch/Animal
zi = rat
chou = ox
yin = tiger
mao = rabbit
chen = dragon
si = snake
wu = horse
wei = sheep/goat
shen = monkey
you = rooster
xu = dog
hai – boar/pig
So, after putting them together, the first year in a 60-year cycle is known as jia-zi (Year of the Rat) as jia is the celestial stem and zi (rat) is the terrestrial branch, followed by yi-chou (Year of the Ox), and so on, until a new cycle starts over with jia-zi.
