The Rabbit is the symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity

The Rabbit is the symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture, thus 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope.

 

While many ring in the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam celebrates the cat.

While almost everyone will ring in the Year of the Rabbit in 2023, Vietnam is welcoming the Year of the Cat. Why does Vietnam differ from the rest of the world this year? The origins of the Year of the Cat are murky.

One explanation has to do with linguistics, according to Doan Thanh Loc, a cultural consultant at the Southern Jade Pavilion Cultural Center in Vietnam. It's widely believed that the Chinese word for rabbit sounds like the Vietnamese word for cat, but that's not exactly true.

 

Quyen Di, a lecturer at UCLA, has several other possible explanations for Vietnam's unique celebration. One has to do with the landscapes of China and Vietnam.

"Originally, the Chinese lived in the savanna area, while the Vietnamese lived in the lowland area," he says. "The people of the savanna prefer a nomadic life, close to the wilderness, and they chose the rabbit as an animal that lived in the wild fields."

In contrast, the lowland people of Vietnam chose the more domestic cat. Additionally, Di says, Vietnamese people consider rabbits as "animals that are used for food" and chose the cat because they're considered "friends living in their house."