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Chinese Zodiac: How compatible are you?

Based on the Chinese zodiac, are you and your SO compatible?

  • Based on our birth years, we are compatible

    Votes: 10 14.9%

  • Based on our birth years, we should be avoiding each other

    Votes: 7 10.4%

  • No match on our birth years

    Votes: 31 46.3%

  • On planet X, everybody is single

    Votes: 19 28.4%
  • Total voters
    67

Blue Mountain

Resident Skeptical Hobbit
Blue Mountain
Joined
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Messages
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Waging war on woo-woo in Winnipeg
I'm not a believer in astrology, and the very sinplified version of Chinese astrology commonly seen here in the West makes less sense than most. This table came from that most reliable of sources: a placemat at a local Chinese restaurant.

| Animal | Years | Compatible with | Avoid |
| Rat |1900 1912 1924 1936 1948 1960 1972 1984 1996|Dragon, Money, Ox|Horse|
| Ox |1901 1913 1925 1937 1949 1961 1973 1985 1997|Snake, Rooster, Rat|Ram|
| Tiger |1902 1914 1926 1938 1950 1962 1974 1986 1998|Horse, Dragon, Dog|Snake, Monkey|
| Hare |1903 1915 1927 1939 1951 1963 1975 1987 1999|Ram, Pig, Dog|Rat, Rooster|
| Dragon |1904 1916 1928 1940 1952 1964 1976 1988 2000|Rat, Snake, Monkey|Dog|
| Snake |1905 1917 1929 1941 1953 1965 1977 1989 2001|Ox, Rooster, Dragon|Tiger, Pig|
| Horse |1906 1918 1930 1942 1954 1966 1978 1990 2902|Tiger, Dog, Ram|Rat|
| Ram |1907 1919 1931 1943 1955 1967 1979 1991 2003|Hare, Pig, Horse|Ox, Dog|
| Monkey |1908 1920 1932 1944 1956 1968 1980 1992 2004|Dragon, Rat, Ram|Tiger|
| Rooster |1909 1921 1933 1945 1957 1969 1981 1993 2005|Ox, Snake, Dragon|Hare|
| Dog |1910 1922 1934 1946 1958 1970 1982 1994 2006|Horse, Tiger, Hare|Dragon, Ram|
| Pig |1911 1213 1935 1947 1959 1971 1983 1995 2007|Hare, Ram, Horse|Snake|

At first glance it seems ludicrous to hook up with or avoid a person based solely on a given 365-or-so day period; after all, many people are born each year, and their personalities are bound to be all over the place. This is answered in part by the Wikipedia article on the Chinese Zodiac, which goes into more detail, showing how additional cycles are used to round out the picture.

However, going strictly on the simple table above, I was interested to discover that the person I am currently living with appears as one of the three choices in the Compatible with list for the year I was born. Going back one generation, the birth years of my parents (born eight years apart) are also "compatible".

From the table, it's obvious that any given couple is likely to have a one in four chance of being "compatible", and somewhere between 1/12 and 1/6 "incompatible." But the coincidence of my personal situation plus my parents' has piqued my interest, so I'm curious to see how this simple table does with a larger dataset.

(If you're not currently in a relationship, please base your response on your last relationship. You can choose the Planet X option if you've never had a girlfriend or boyfriend, or would prefer not to remember any of them.)
 
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As compatible as I want to be, which is the "secret" behind all horoscopes.

It is especially bogus to assign a group of traits to everybody born in a single year. Maybe that worked better when people were less clear about when they were born, but in the West we have been stuck with our chronological peers since at least kindergarten and we know that it included everybody from people like us to people who might as well have been from Mars.
 
Strangely enough, my husband and I are one of the relatively few pairings that are neither compatible nor avoid-worthy. This is in spite of the fact that both of our signs have the highest total of 5 signs listed for each of us.
 
I must be doing it wrong, because I'm a Hare and the Ram, Pig, and Dog didn't work out very well.

But the Rooster, she was the one I loved the best.
 
I'm (apparently) a Hare, my wife's a Rat. Hares should avoid Rats, but Rats should only avoid Horses and not Rats. How should you interpret that? Will only I be unlucky in our relationship but not my wife??

(the answer is obvious: stupid table :) )
 
Blue Mountain, you are aware that the chinese year new year is not on january 1st?
I don't defend astrology but your application is wrong for all people born between january 1st and the chinese new year. This is not a small error.
 
gambling_cruiser said:
Blue Mountain, you are aware that the chinese year new year is not on january 1st?
I don't defend astrology but your application is wrong for all people born between january 1st and the chinese new year. This is not a small error.
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Indeed, I took it into account when I answered - my wife was born in 1968 but is a 'ram' not a 'monkey'.

No match on the Chinese one but I know in 'western' astrology my wife and I are supposed to be violently incompatible (she's a Capricorn and I'm a Gemini for anyone interested in such bilge). I remember talking to the proprietor of a crystal, tarot type shop* in Ireland soon after we were married and, after commenting on how obviously in love we were, the owner asked our star signs. When we told her she looked genuinely horrified and sorrowfully told us that there was absolutely no way our relationship could last.

21 years and 4 kids later we're still the most happily married couple I know....Obviously I put this down to my incredible skills in the bed chamber overcoming the power of the planets....or it could possibly be my fertile imagination coupled with my wife's sense of humour!

*I love all that stuff - don't believe in any of it, but love it all. My collection of tarot, crystals, I Ching, runestones, crystal balls etc would make Doris Stokes jealous...and she's been dead for years!
 
According to that chart I'm a Ram and my wife is a dog so we should avoid each other.
We have been married for 13 years by now. :D
 
The current girlfreind is compatible, the previous two should have been avoided and were both Dogs. I knew that without reference to a Chinese Zodiac thingy. They would have denied it of course. I shall send each a copy. :)
 
I am a dragon, and my husband is a pig (never thought I would ever type this aloud!:D). Dragons should be compatible with half the world, but no match here, apparently. My ex is a rat, so I should've kept him. :eek:
 
Also bear in mind that the years don't exactly correspond - for example I was born in 1972 yet am not a Rat (as I always thought) but a Pig.

Also, depending on which year you are you get a material as well.

According to one site I am a Metal Pig.

How cool is that?

(But having clicked on a couple of site, as per usual in astrology, it is clear that different sites completely disagree with each other - I'm not sure how astrologers intend to make even the tiniest attempt to be taken seriously when they can't even agree with each other)
 
dropzone said:
As compatible as I want to be, which is the "secret" behind all horoscopes.

It is especially bogus to assign a group of traits to everybody born in a single year. Maybe that worked better when people were less clear about when they were born, but in the West we have been stuck with our chronological peers since at least kindergarten and we know that it included everybody from people like us to people who might as well have been from Mars.
Click to expand...
Indeed. You could put a thousand people born under any one of these annual Zodiac signs into a convention hall, and you'd see the entire gamut of humans: smart, stupid; extroverted, introverted; sociable, sociopath; altruistic, avaricious; total carnivore, vegan ... people are variable!

Fnord said:
What? No "Year of the Horta"?
Click to expand...
Horta people are stone-faced, implacable, slow to anger, but burn with passion and can bore through solid rock. Most compatible with Dinosaur, Platypus, or Kangaroo; should avoid Redshirts.

Hokulele said:
Strangely enough, my husband and I are one of the relatively few pairings that are neither compatible nor avoid-worthy. This is in spite of the fact that both of our signs have the highest total of 5 signs listed for each of us.
Click to expand...
I wonder what the chances are of that? Probably lower than getting a match of some sort.
 
Mrs B and me are both metal Tigers, which are neutral compatibility.

However we're also both Scorpios, which gets the skull+crossbones sign
on western starsign compatibility charts. Shows what they know, as we've been married 29 years.
 
I'm a pig. My wife's a snake. This could be trouble. Of course, we've only been married 24 years. There could be a problem cropping up soon.
 
I want to be a horse, not a snake! :( Can I write to the Chinese embassy to
get it changed, or something?
 
I'm a horse but always wanted to be a dragon. If you can find a dragon who wants to be a snake, we can work out a three-way swap.
 
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