Tết: Năm của Rồng

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.

Pennant of the Nguyễn dynasty emperor. By Goran tek-en (source), Oppashi (derivative work) - File:Nguyen Imperial Pennon (m4).gifFile:Vietnamese Dragon blue.svg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64178781

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.

Coat of arms of the (French) State of Vietnam, 1954-1955.  .By Goran tek-en, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=100564723

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.

Year of

Leporidae.  They include sixty different species in more than one genus, all having a very similiar appearance.

Historically, an important food animal around the globe, Wyoming has six different species of hares and rabbits.  Of the rabbits, we have two species of Sylvilagus, the audobonii and the floridanus, which are the Dester Cottontail and the Eastern Cottontail respectively.  

Desert Cottontails hang out constantly in my yard.

 

We also have another rabbit species, the Brachylagus idahoensis, which is the Pygmy rabbit. They're little guys.

And we have three species of hares, the Lepus californicus, the Lepus townsendii and the Lepus americanus, or the Black-tailed jackrabbit, the White-tailed jackrabbit and the Snowshoe hare. They're all big guys.

Cottontail rabbits are delicious, in my experience.  Fried Cottontail is great.  Snowshoe hares are likewise tasty, but tougher.  I have no experience with the others, but lots with these.

And the seasons are still open.