[WHY] 2023 is the Year of the Black Rabbit: Here's all you need to know

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Published: 14 Jan. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 15 Jan. 2023, 11:25

[WHY] 2023 is the Year of the Black Rabbit: Here's all you need to know

The first sunrise of 2023 behind a rabbit-shaped installation in Ulsan's Ulju County on Jan. 1. [YONHAP]

Take a stroll down a street in Seoul these days, and you’re bound to sight some form of rabbit commodities, commercials, statues or banners.

In fact, rabbits have been popping up everywhere from as early as the beginning of last month.

Why are rabbits suddenly in fad?

Well, it’s not just rabbits. Each year, between December and January, people celebrate the new year with a sort of mascot animal. In 2022, it was the tiger. In 2021, it was the ox.

Where does this annual phenomenon come from? Koreans, along with many other Asian countries, tend to categorize the years based on the lunar calendar, using a 12-year zodiac cycle with 12 animals — the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig — cycling around to represent each year.

In 2023, it is the Year of the Rabbit.

Koreans call the lunar animal years ddi, which roughly translates to sign, and are used when referring to the year in which they were born. There are also set beliefs that people have distinct tendencies, and even fortunes, shaped around their ddi.

This is why you may have witnessed your daily horoscope told based on what year you were born in and what animal you are associated with in Korean newspapers, magazines or portal sites.

Although the trend of people categorizing and identifying themselves has now largely been taken over by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment, ddi has been around in Korea far longer, with mounting piles of interesting phenomenon and anecdotes accumulated over its history.

Why is it the Year of the Black Rabbit?

Besides 2023, the Year of the Rabbit took place in 2011, 1999, 1987, 1963, 1951 and so on.

Specifically, though, 2023 is the year of the black rabbit. Although the Year of the Rabbit comes around every 12 years, the black rabbit year comes in every 60 years, meaning the last Year of the Black Rabbit was in 1963.

This second layer of categorization is derived from five elements also incorporated in the Chinese zodiac: water, metal, wood, earth and fire. The zodiac animals move through the different elements, each associated with a color, each time they complete one 12-year cycle. Essentially, there are 12 animals and five elements, making for 60 years of different combinations.

The year 2023 is the year that the rabbit matches up with the water element, which is associated with the color black in the Chinese system.

Hence, it is the year of the black rabbit.

Rabbits are dressed in hanbok (traditional Korean dress) to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Black Rabbit in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, on Dec. 26, 2022. [YONHAP]

How do people identify themselves with ddi?

Since associating oneself with one's zodiac animal is a traditional norm in Korea, the characteristics of each ddi can be found neatly organized in a variety of sites and blogs in fortunetelling and folklore.

For instance, people with rabbit ddi are thought to be idealists, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture of The Academy of Korean Studies. They are also sentimental and quick-witted, and are said to show particular talent in art and entertainment. At their best, they are also quick to grasp the situation at hand and able to nimbly overcome their hardships. However, at their worst, they can also be lazy and passive.

People born with dragon ddi are known to be passionate, just, courageous and trustworthy. However, they also can be short-tempered, obstinate and have unbending boundaries regarding their likes and dislikes.

People with pig ddi are said to be honest, diligent, strong-minded and sympathetic. However, their biggest fault lies in them being unable to refuse to others’ requests.

Some distinctive traits of the monkey ddi are that they have cheery personalities, are positive and make good leaders; ox ddi are patient, honest and diligent but may be conservative; sheep ddi are pacifists, pure, kind and lucky; rat ddi are attentive, witty and nimble, but they can also be timid and cautious of others; tiger ddi are passionate, positive and adventurous; horse ddi are humorous and open-minded, but can also be impulsive; rooster ddi are intelligent and meticulous, but also obstinate; dog ddi are candid, cheery and warmhearted; and, lastly, snake ddi possess uniqueness, are determined and meticulous, but they can also be distrustful of others.

Do people still believe that ddi can determine their personality and fortune?

Many don't.

"It can't be true, because that would mean that people are categorized by only 12 kinds of personalities and traits based on ddi," said 28-year-old Jun Jae-eun. "I think ddi are now only really mentioned during the end and beginning of a new year, or when corporates send out the New Year's cards. I feel that ddi are now only a means to calculate your age."

"If ddi affects people's personalities and fortune, that would mean people born in certain years would all have the same traits and fortune," said 31-year-old Choi Jun-myung. "So no, I don't believe in ddi in that sense. There may be a distinctive set of characteristics shared by a generation influenced by their environment and culture, but that has nothing to do with ddi."

Sand sculptor Kim Gil-man creates a rabbit sand sculpture on Jan. 1 to celebrate the Year of the Black Rabbit. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

Although ddi were once a set of entertaining standards by which others could be evaluated when there were no other ways to categorize them, now people have developed all sorts of ways to find a group to which they belong, such as labeling themselves through blood types or the MBTI.

But that doesn't mean that ddi are now completely discarded in contemporary society.

An interesting phenomenon occurred in 2007, which was the Year of the Pig. The number of babies born that year amounted to 496,822, a 9.98 percent increase compared to the previous year’s 451,759. In 2008, the newborn population decreased by 6.23 percent to 465,892, according to data from Statistics Korea.

What made 2007 a sudden baby boom?

That year was the Year of the Golden Pig — or so people thought. It was actually the red pig, but media outlets at the time reported that many people mistook it for the golden pig, a combination which suggests prosperity, wealth and well-being. Pigs alone are a symbol representing affluence and luck. For instance, if someone has a dream with a pig in it and tells someone else about it, they may likely be told to buy a lottery ticket, because they've just dreamt a lucky dream.

So when gold, obviously also representing wealth and prosperity, overlapped with the Year of the Pig, there was a sudden scramble among wedded couples planning to give birth to babies within the year, in hopes that their children will be extra fortuitous and successful.

Other symbolisms as old as time include the saying that daughters born in the Year of the Horse can be stubborn or ill-fated. However, people apparently didn't pay much heed to this legend, as there was no notable decline in the population of babies born in 2002 or 2014, which were both the Year of the Horse.

People also look to their ddi attributes to explain why they don't get along with someone. For instance, a popular post on an online community explained all the clashes and conflicts between a daughter-in-law and her her mother-in-law. At the end of the post, however, the writer comes to the realization that they do not get along because one is a pig ddi and the other is a snake ddi — which are commonly said to be incompatible with one another.

Where did the ddi originate from?

Experts say that Koreans relate to their zodiac animals so much because the tradition has been part of their lives for so long.

The notion of the traditional Asian zodiac initially came from a Chinese scholar Wang Chong, active during the Han Dynasty. The 12 zodiac animals first appeared in Wang Chong’s book “Lunheng,” which was one of his many theories on astronomy and philosophy explaining the secular origin of the universe and humans.

“In Korea, the earliest evidence of us adapting the zodiac system came from the tomb of General Kim Yu-shin [595-673],” said Jung Yon-hak, a senior curator at the National Folk Museum of Korea.

Kim Yu-shin was a military general and politician who unified the Korean Peninsula under Silla to progress to the Unified Silla period (668-935).

“During the period, people even gave the 12 animal gods a place behind each number in time, under the belief that they wanted to guard [their country] by the hour, and to display the reinforcement of sovereignty. Zodiac animals have been with us since then.”

Over time, this has evolved into the ddi system of today and incorporates each animals’ distinctive traits and instincts onto people’s attributes.

According to folklore, snakes are afraid of pigs because, while pigs are able to eat snakes, the reverse cannot happen because snakes cannot penetrate the pigs’ thick skin — which is the origin of the incompatibility between pig ddi and snake ddi.

Although wild boars are known to be a formidable predator on land, they still fear tigers, at the top of the food chain. This is why people with pig ddi and tiger ddi are thought to be a mismatch.

The National Museum of Korea displays 10 exhibits related to rabbits to celebrate the Year of the Black Rabbit. [NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA]

Who are some celebrities with rabbit ddi?

Some well-known celebrities with rabbit ddi include K-pop acts like Seventeen’s Dino, Red Velvet’s Yeri, Twice’s Tzuyu, Wannaone’s Park Ji-hoon, The Boyz’s Juhaknyeon, and T.O.P, and actors Han Hyo-joo, Lee Seung-gi, Lee Min-ho, Ahn Jae-hyun and Joo Won. They were all born either in 1999 or 1987.

Well-known CEOs with rabbit ddi are CJ Group Chairman Son Kyung-shik, born in 1939, LX Group Chairman Koo Bon-joon, born in 1951, Amorepacific Group Chairman Suh Kyung-bae, born in 1963, and Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae, born in 1975.

Many people like drawing correlations to others with the same ddi. A common example would be searching “celebrities with rabbit ddi” online: immediately, there will be loads of hits. Fans have already organized, and regularly update, hundreds of Korean celebrities from K-pop idols, Korean actors and comedians based on their ddi.

Why do people still cling to the concept of ddi?

Asian countries’ collectivistic culture — which contrasts with Western countries' relatively individualistic culture — also prompts people to compare and categorize themselves based on their ddi.

For many, it gives a sense of identity and belonging.

“People cannot make individual decisions because they’re unsure about themselves,” psychology Professor Kwak Geum-ju of Seoul National University said. “It’s similar to why MBTI is so big among younger generations. An individual feels burdened when they are given the responsibility to step up for their own decisions, but we become more confident when we’re in a group because individual responsibility is broken down to one-nth of the whole.”

Ddi is also one of the more commonly referred categorization methods because it shines a more positive outlook on people’s qualities. Although there may be some negative connotations around each animal, overall, the zodiac animals accentuate the positive aspects. When people discover matching traits with their zodiac animals, it boosts their expectations that they, too, may become more like their zodiac animal.

“Among the younger generation, ddi are similar to avatars, or the secondary personas that are popular these days,” said psychology Professor Lim Myung-ho of Dankook University. “It’s all open to interpretation, but even for qualities that do not match their own personality, people have a sense of anticipation that the traits are inherent and will one day be manifested.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]