Hello, my name is Christopher Runstrom, and I'm the weekly horoscope colonist here on

Astrology Hub, and this time I wanted to talk to you about the Chinese Lunar New Year

taking place on January 29th. Now, the Chinese zodiac is very different than the Western zodiac that we are all familiar with.

For instance, our signs are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius,

Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.

These are the constellations that form the ecliptic in which the planets that move across

the sky move in front of these signs. So in other words, the ecliptic is a path that the sun and the

moon follow across the sky, from their rising to their setting.

The other planets that follow with them are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

So in astrology, the way that we work out a year is that the Sun moves from sign to sign.

It moves through every one of the 12 signs, which are associated to

the 12 months of the year. And so it's the sun moving in and out of a sign that we use to tell time,

and we also use in Western astrology. In Chinese astrology, the architecture is altogether different.

The ecliptic is not used. In fact, in Chinese astrology, what's used is the North Star,

the Big Dipper, which is located in the constellation of Eursa Major.

And so it's the constellations that move around the North Pole that are used in Chinese

astrology.

But astrology is not the same thing as a zodiac.

Astrology is going to be talking about the movement of the sun and moon and planets

through the sky and the aspects that

these planets make with one another. But the zodiac, the zodiac describes the band of animals

that are being referenced. And as I said before, in Western astrology, we have Ares, Taurus, Gemini,

...