Once upon a time, Buddha gathered all the creatures in his kingdom to appear before him. Buddha told them that he wanted to choose twelve among them to be the king of the earth, each for one year. They decided to hold a river-crossing race to select the twelve animals.
The mouse and the cat cannot swim so they asked the ox for a favor. They rode on the ox’s head. During the contest, the mouse kicked the cat off the ox’s head. The cat fell into the water and struggled. Since then, cats always chase mice for revenge.
When they got closer to the finish line, the tricky mouse jumped over the ox’s head and won the first prize. The first twelve animals that completed the journey were the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each Chinese year is represented by a repeated cycle of these twelve animals.
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