Eto (干支)

The next year is the year of the horse. Every year are represented by Eto(干支）in Japan and some Asian countries. Eto is the Oriental Zodiac. It represents year ,time, bearing by the twelve units in days of old. The twelve units are mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, boar in order. They are represented 子（ネ、ねずみ）、丑（ウシ、牛）、寅（トラ、虎）、卯（ウ、ウサギ）、辰（タツ、龍）、巳（ミ、蛇、ヘビ）、午（ウマ、馬）、未（ヒツジ、羊）、申（サル、猿）、酉（トリ、鶏）、戌（イヌ、犬）、亥（イ、猪） in Japanese. For example, 子 represents twelve o'clock, the bearing of 辰巳 represents the bearing of south and east.
There are various kind of Eto in some other Asian countries. Only Japan and Mongolia seem to include boar in Eto instead of pig. I think the reason is because Japanese think boar is stronger than pig. 「猪突猛進」 is a phrase about boar. The meaning is " rushing own goal ".

You may wonder why cat isn't included in Eto. There is an anecdote about Eto. One day the race was played. The race was to determine twelve animals of Eto. Twelve animals of Eto was determined in order of arriving to God early. The cat couldn't join the race because of being cheated by the mouse. So the cat seemed not to be included in Eto. The anecdote says the cat catch up mouses because of being angry at the mouse. Incidentally, there is a contry which include cat in Eto instead of rabbit. It's Viet Nam. I don't know the reason but it is interesting that the kind of Eto is different by countries.
By the way, You may be wondering why the mouse could arrive to God most earliest. It is because mouse rode on ox's head until the goal and mouse took a leap from ox's head at the last goal. The mouse is very smart or foxy, isn't it?