Arrived last night.
It is the Vietnamese Year of the Dragon. The Vietnamese years cycle in the following fashion:
Rat Tý
Water buffalo Sửu
Tiger Dần W
Cat Mão
Dragon Thìn
Snake Tỵ
Horse Ngọ
Goat Mùi
Monkey Thân
Rooster Dậu
Dog Tuất
Pig Hợi
This is similar to a cycle used by some larger country to the north, whose cycle is the following:
Mouse 鼠, shǔ (子)
Ox 牛, niú (丑) Yin
Tiger 虎, hǔ (寅) Yang
Rabbit 兔, tù (卯) Yin
Dragon 龙/龍, lóng (辰) Yang
Snake 蛇, shé (巳) Yin
Horse 马/馬, mǎ (午) Yang
Goat 羊, yáng (未) Yin
Monkey 猴, hóu (申) Yang
Rooster 鸡/雞, jī (酉) Yin
Dog 狗, gǒu (戌) Yang
Pig 猪/豬, zhū (亥) Yin
These calendars match, so this is the Year of the Dragon on both. Last year, of course, was the Year of the Rabbit on that calendar, while on the Vietnamese calendar, it was the Year of the Cat.
As with China and other Asian lands, dragons have a long connection with Vietnam. In Vietnam, they were used as dynasitc symbols nad national symbols at various points in time.
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As a mythical beast, dragons are bizarrely widely spread in terms of appearance, with nearly every culture on earth, save for North and South America (in so far as I'm aware) having some variant of them. This has lead to quite a bit of academic speculation as to how this came about.
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