Yes, today is the beginning of The Year of the Bunny - surely the lamest of all the Chinese zodiac animals! You have to pity anyone born in a Rabbit Year. Even the many, many Chinese friends and students of mine that I've asked about this over the years have always failed to come up with any positive qualities associated with the poor creature (the Vietnamese, I learn, prefer to represent this phase of their calendar with the characteristics of a 'cat'!). The most promising suggestion I ever received was, "Well, they're very.... nervous. In a good way. You know, um, alert to danger." Hm, yes - I'll take the Tiger any day, thank you.
However.... each of the Chinese zodiac animal years is successively combined with one of the five elements - Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal - to produce a complete cycle of 60 years. And this year is the Year of the Metal Rabbit - which may not mean anything particularly wonderful within the construct of the Chinese superstitions, but to a flippant foreigner it sounds way more butch than the Wood Rabbit or the Water Rabbit.
And so, I give you..... The Mighty MechaRabbit:
Have a great year, everyone!!
[And don't miss this superb holiday video I just put up over on Froogville. If a system of government could be overturned by a joke, this might be it.....]
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