Year of the ... Shroat?

Which is it: the Year of the Ram, the Year of the Goat or the Year of the Sheep?

No one has a definitive answer. Even in Hong Kong, people are uncertain. We ought to coin a new word from a combination of the three: Shroat.

The original Cantonese word for this year is yeuhng (in Putonghua, yang) a general word for a horned ruminant. Ruminants are animals that graze and chew their food for a long time. Think cud. Look at the character and you'll see the face and horns of the goat. Most images and symbols depict a horned animal; most show curved horns that indicate a ram. The ram is a male sheep.

Given the animals are related and share many characteristics among the various species, I chose to use the most popular version, the Year of the Goat. Not that it matters, I'm not superstitious.

Next year is the Year of the Monkey, but people won't be calling it the Year of the Ape or the Year of the Gorilla.

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