On Jan. 19, 2019, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) shared on their Facebook page that buses and trains have been dressed up for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Interestingly, LTA used the term "Year of the Boar" instead of "Year of the Pig".

When Mothership.sg reported on the decorations for the "Boar" year, netizens raised objection to the use of the word:

Year of the Boar coins

In November 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced it was launching a set of "Year of the Boar" coins as part of its tradition of producing annual commemorative zodiac coins.

The buzz back then was not about the use of the word "Boar", but whether the imagery of the pig/boar would be offensive to Muslims.

Fortunately, many Muslims Singaporeans stepped in to say that they are cool with it, and in fact it was non-Muslim Singaporeans who voiced the most concern.

But this was another instance that a public agency has called it the "Year of the Boar".

Was there a memo that some Singaporeans might have missed?

So is it Boar or Pig?

Search Google for "Year of the Boar" and this is what you get:

First point to "Pig" then.

Further research points to the "Year of the Boar" being used primarily in Japan, where the zodiac animal is specifically called inoshishi (wild boar) rather than buta (pig).

Is the word 猪 referring to a boar or pig?

In Chinese, the zodiac word used is 猪 (zhu) which is commonly translated to pig.

But this is also where it can get confusing because zhu describes the entire family of artiodactyl mammals which are commonly called pigs, hogs or boars.

Depending on what prefix you attach to "猪", it could become a 家猪 (jia zhu, domestic pig), 野猪 (ye zhu, wild boar), 红河肉猪 (honghe rouzhu, red river hog), etc.

In popular Chinese literature describing the origins of the zodiac animals, only the zhu character is used, thus opening it up to interpretation as to what kind of zhu actually met the Jade Emperor.

Chinese zodiacs denote the time of the day

A lesser known aspect of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac is that aside from denoting years, they also denote the time of the day.

Each animal represents a 2-hour window in the day.

There is also a "logic" to which animal takes up its corresponding time slot.

For example, the hours of the rat is between 2300hrs to 0059hrs where the rat is most active hunting for food; 1900hrs to 2059hrs are the hours of the dog when the dog guards its house.

As for the zhu? Its hours are 2100hrs to 2259hrs where it supposedly sleeps the sweetest.

And this is where we may find have an answer to whether the zodiac animal is supposed to be a pig or boar.

Pigs are diurnal animals that are active in the day while boars are nocturnal.

So if the zodiac zhu is supposed to be sleeping sweetly between 9 and 11pm, chances are it is the pig.

So go forth and confidently call it the Year of the Pig.

Photo by Christopher Carson on Unsplash