Saturday, December 31, 2022

Happy New Year of the Rabbit!

Today is New Year’s Eve in the Western world, but as I have done in previous years, I am posting this after the new year has already begun in East Asia. So, in true Japanese fashion, I am wishing each one of you a Happy New Year! 明けまして、おめでとう御座います!

The new year, 2023, is the Year of the Rabbit according to the zodiac of China/East Asia. The Chinese New Year doesn't begin until January 22, but for a long time now Japan has celebrated January 1 as New Year’s Day, although many of the ancient traditions are still maintained to varying degrees.

As most of you may know, in East Asia there is a sign for each of twelve years rather than twelve signs in one year as in the West, and each sign repeats in a twelve-year cycle.

It is easy to guess what year a person was born in if you know their sign, so in Japan it is common to ask for a person’s zodiac sign rather than asking their age. If a young senior citizen says they were born in the Year of the Rabbit, you could easily guess they were born in 1963, not 1951 or 1975.

People born under the sign of the rabbit,” according to this website, “are gentle, sensitive, compassionate, amiable, modest and merciful, and have strong memory. They like to communicate with others in a humorous manner.”

My father was born in the Year of the Rabbit (so as you might guess, he was born in 1915), and the characteristics given in the previous paragraph seem to have fitted him well. How do they seem to fit those of you who were born in, say, 1939, 1951, or 1963?

What can we expect in the Year of the Rabbit, 2023? Early this month, I received a special issue of The Economist titled “The World Ahead 2023.” Every year they publish this sort of special edition, which I always find interesting and helpful.

This time, though, I didn’t find editor Tom Standage’s “Ten trends to watch in the coming year" to be particularly beneficial. The first two were “All eyes on Ukraine” and “Recessions loom,” but perhaps most any of us could have predicted the same things.

I did, though, think that these words from his final paragraph were thoughtworthy.

In retrospect, the pandemic marked the end of a period of relative stability and predictability in geopolitics and economics. Today’s world is much more unstable, convulsed by the vicissitudes of great-power rivalry, the aftershocks of the pandemic, economic upheaval, extreme weather, and rapid social and technological change. Unpredictability is the new normal. There is no getting away from it.

So, yes, what the world will experience in the year ahead is quite unpredictable—although to a large degree, that is true for every new year.

I asked ChatGPT what the world could expect in 2023. It quickly replied, “It is not possible for me to predict with certainty what will happen in 2023, as the future is always uncertain and can be influenced by a wide range of factors.” That was pretty much a no-brainer.  

But the “chatbot” did suggest four “potential developments” that could take place in 2023, including, “It is likely that there will be continued progress in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology, which could lead to new products and services that change the way we live and work.”

That is consistent with what Economist editor Standage mentioned as one of the expected ten trends in 2023. Apple is set to launch its first virtual reality headset, which they suggest may be the next “best thing” in the “metaverse.”** Will they change society as much as iPads/iPhones have? We'll see. 

Regardless of what might happen in 2023, the Year of the Rabbit, I pray that it will be a good year for you—and for the world at large.

_____

* If you don’t have Japanese fonts loaded on your computer, you may not be able to see the Japanese words in this sentence.

** As envisioned by Octavia Butler in her 1998 dystopian novel Parable of the Talents, by 2033 such virtual reality headsets were being replaced by the superior Dreamasks. 

5 comments:

  1. Happy New Year from the US!! Although I dearly miss Japan and wish to celebrate there again, I have all the time to return and learn more Japanese culture and the meaning of symbols of Japan to communicate with the Japanese. Thank you for all your articles as they are useful in my studies as a Baptist missionary. Blessings. S.K.

    One curious question I have and is it true that in Japan, blood types reflect people's characters as much as the zodiac years or are they part of the superstitions from ancient times? Thanks.

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    1. Steven, thanks for your comments, written soon after I made this post this morning. I am glad you are able to celebrate the new year with family and friends here in the States this year, but the New Year celebrations here in the U.S. always seem thin and rather trivial when compared to the observance of お正月 ("oshougatsu" = the first days of the new year) in Japan. I trust you will have the opportunity to celebrate the new year many times in Japan in the years/decades ahead.

      I have never made any attempt to study the emphasis on blood types in Japan, but my impression is that that is of rather recent origin and has nothing to do with traditional Japan. At least it was only during our last years in Japan that there seemed to be increasing references to blood types, which I always thought was rather insignificant.

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  2. Thanks, Leroy. I’m 1947, so year of the pig. —Anton

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    1. Anton, in Japan the year of the "pig" is said to be the year of the "inoshishi (= wild boar), which seems a bit different, and better, than "pig," which is domesticated and often pampered. According to one website, "People born in the year of the Boar . . . are strong and brave individuals. Boar people maintain and display a great sense of honesty. They have an enormous inner spirit and strength which can be hard to defeat." To me, that sounds a lot like you. What do you think?

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  3. 明けましておめでとう御座います! Oh how I miss Japanese お正月!it was always one of my favorite times in living in Japan. My husband and I are both Monkeys. (1980) and my kids are a horse, a monkey and a pig (2014, 2016 and 2019)

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