Explainer | Why Vietnam is celebrating the Year of the Cat, not the Rabbit
- Vietnam and China share 10 of the zodiac calendar’s 12 signs – but the Vietnamese honour the cat instead of the rabbit, and the buffalo instead of the ox
- One theory is the Vietnamese made their own interpretation of the Chinese word for rabbit, ‘mao’. In Vietnamese, this sounds like ‘meo’, which means cat
Across the country, streets are decked out with statues of felines and shops are stocked full of cat-themed decorations, popular gifts during Vietnamese New Year, known as Tet.
Vietnam and neighbouring China share 10 of the zodiac calendar’s 12 signs – the rat, tiger, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
But the Vietnamese honour the cat instead of the rabbit, and the buffalo instead of the ox.
There are a host of theories to explain why the Vietnamese plumped for the cat.
Nguyen Hieu Tin, an expert on traditional Vietnamese culture, said the answer may lie in the rice fields prized by farmers.
“Rice is a huge part of Vietnam’s agriculture, but with the threat of many rats in the fields, the cats [which can hunt them] are a popular animal for the Vietnamese,” he told AFP.