YEAR OF THE RAT

Chinese New Year 4706, which begins Thursday, is the Year of the Rat, which holds a place of honor as the first creature in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar.

Legend has it that the rat was the first one to arrive when Buddha summoned 12 animals to name a year in each cycle after each one of them. The rat was followed by an ox, a tiger, a rabbit, a dragon, a snake, a horse, a sheep, a monkey, a rooster, a dog and a pig.

"The charm and innovative personality of the rat is legendary - he did not become the first sign of the cycle without good reason," Theodora Lau wrote in her Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes. "The rat loves to run the show and everyone and everything had better look sharp under his stewardship."

The rat is a natural leader, who is eloquent and enterprising yet very sentimental and caring. The Chinese say those with a rat child are very lucky because when the parents get old the child will take care of them. 

This election year is supposed to be positive for the United States, founded in the year of the monkey. "The rat and the monkey are very compatible and since it's the year of the rat, it will do well for the monkey," Lau said in an interview. "Both the rat and the monkey love the challenges and they will be able to find the solutions."

The rat also gets along with the dragon and ox, and clashes with the horse and the pig.

The Chinese lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, and is constructed in a different fashion than the Western solar calendar, with the beginning of the year falling somewhere between late January and early February, according to the Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco. In China, the horoscope is often consulted to learn how to deal with a difficult boss or to find a peacemaker to mediate a conflict.

For those of us studying the English language it might be fun to look at some "rat words":

ratable

ratably
ratafee
ratafia
ratal
ratan
ratany
rataplan
ratatat
ratatouille

ratchet

rate

rathskeller

ratify

ratio

ratiocinate

ration

rationale

rationalistic

ratsbane

rattail

rattle

rattlebrained

rattletrap

rattlesnake