The Chinese zodiac is a combination of five elements and twelve animals that repeats every sixty years.

The five elements are:
1) wood 2) fire 3) earth 4) metal 5) water

And the twelve animals are:
Rat Ox Tiger Rabbit
Dragon Snake Horse Sheep
Monkey Rooster Dog Boar

Lunar New Year is a major Chinese holiday, is ususally celebrated with gatherings of friends and family, and festivities may include fireworks, dragon dances, and giving red envelopes.

About a week after the official start of the new year, the 15th day of the lunar new year month marks the conclusion of the celebrations with the biggest party of all: the Lantern Festival. Although there are variations on the story of the origin of the Lantern Festival, to this day it is celebrated with brightly colored lanterns and convivial social gatherings.

Here are some of the themes favored by the Year of the Rat:

• Practicality
  
• Relationships
  
• Upheaval

What could these mean for this upcoming year?

Perhaps some paradigm shifts that cause us to reconsider our closest relationships and endorse a more practical economic outlook?

It is a presidential election year, after all.

Another observation is that 2008 is an Earth/Rat combination, which (as noted before) hasn't occurred since the last 60-year cycle. So which notable events occurred in 1948?

• Key Big Bang theory published
  
• Mahatma Gandhi murdered
  
• End of Costa Rican civil war
  
• Israel's Declaration of Independence
  
• Soviets initiate the Berlin Blockade crisis during early Cold War
  
• U.S. institutes military draft under Truman
  
• The Republic of Korea established
  
• United Nations adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Could the unique combination of Earth and Rat bring similar important global events in 2008? If the Rat zodiac energy is similar, we may be in for a very interesting year.

Feel free to share your interpretations in our Guestbook below...