-^-for posterity-^-

the 28th day of the last month of the lunar year.

vietnam follows the lunar calander that was brought down from china. many words also come from china and there is a third, hybrid language that meshes the two. it is called ‘han viet’ which is used sparcely in formal situations to describe things.

in the lunar calander, there are twelve different animals and every year is named after an animal. i, for example, being born in 1980, am a monkey. the twelve years go from the most important to the least important. also, each year is given a distinguishing name. there are 10 different names to distinguish the different years. the meaning of these different distinguishing names is not clear. i can not find any clear definitions in the dictionary, and i can not find any clear definitions when i asked people.

the combination of 12 animals and 10 distinguishing words repeats itself every 60 years. for example, i am a ‘canh than’ or a ‘canh monkey’ and the next time we will see that year is in 2040, or when i turn 60 years old. on the 60th birthday, there is a very large party that is held which is called the ‘le mung tho’ party. that means the ‘celebration to welcome the tho god.’ the tho god is the god of old age and wisdom. if you have achieved 60 years, you have officially lived through the cycle of your life. here, i will give a list of the different years (in ‘han viet’) and what animal it is. you can figure out for yourself what animal you are and what your distinguishing word is. i will ignore all tones so, for example, you’ll see ‘ty’ and ‘ty’ but they are very different tones and thus have distinct meanings.

vietnamese -- english
1983 quy hoi -- quy pig
1982 nham tuat -- nham dog
1981 tan dau -- tan chicken
1980 canh than -- canh monkey
1979 ky mui -- ky goat
1978 mau ngo -- mau horse
1977 dinh ty -- dinh snake
1976 binh thinh -- binh dragon
1975 at meo -- at cat
1974 giap dan -- giap tiger
1973 quy suu -- quy buffalo
1972 nham ty -- nham rat
1971 tan hoi -- tan pig
1970 canh tuat -- canh dog
1969 ky dau -- ky chicken
1968 mau than -- mau monkey
1967 dinh mui -- kinh goat
1966 binh ngo -- binh horse
1965 at ty -- at snake

the rat is the highest ranking animal and the pig is the lowest ranking. you can trace this back to your birthday remembering that there are 10 distinguishing words and 12 animals. oh, and ‘canh’, as a distinguishing word is not lucky. i was not born in an unlucky year.