Okay, so I wanted to make a Chinese zodiac calendar for 2008, the Year of the Rat. I’ve always been kind of fascinated by the zodiac, and I thought it would be a fun little project to put one together myself.
First, I looked up the start date of the Lunar New Year in 2008. Turns out, it was February 7th. That was my anchor point.
Getting the Data
- I jotted down all the zodiac animals. You know: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Gotta have them all!
- Then, I figured out the order. It repeats every 12 years, so 2008 was Rat, 2009 was Ox, and so on. Easy peasy.
Putting it Together
I started with a basic table. I made columns for the date, the day of the week, and the zodiac animal.
I filled in the dates, starting from February 7th, 2008. I used a regular calendar to make sure I got the days of the week right. It was a bit tedious, but not hard.
Next, I matched each date with the correct zodiac animal. Since I knew 2008 was the Year of the Rat, I just followed the cycle for the rest of the dates.
I went back and added the dates before February 7th, 2008. Those were still part of the previous year, the Year of the Pig. So, I marked those accordingly.
Finishing Touches
After filling in the whole year, I did a quick check to make sure everything lined up. Seemed good!
It’s not super fancy, but it’s my own little homemade Chinese zodiac calendar for 2008! It was a fun little project to keep me busy, and it made realize how time runs fast!
