Year Of Dragon

The dragon is the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dragon is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 辰.

It has been proposed that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions; it may have symbolized the star Antares. In the Buddhist calendar used in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, the dragon is replaced by the nāga. In the Gurung zodiac, the dragon is replaced by the eagle. In the Old Turkic calendar it is replaced by a fish or crocodile. Early Persian translations of the medieval period change the dragon to a sea serpent, although in current times it is generally referred to as whale.

During China's Cultural Revolution, there was an attempt to replace the dragon with the giant panda; however, the movement was short lived.