We celebrated our birthdays according to the lunar calendar, and I knew everyone’s birthday and zodiac signs at a very young age. The major of the population in Hong Kong lived in abject poverty (<$2/day by global standard) at those time, so I never had a birthday cake or a vacation until my late teens. Nevertheless, we were a big happy family living in a 700-sq. I grew up in a family of seven siblings in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 60s, and we paid a lot of attention to our zodiac signs. Both of our parents are horses, and so is my big sister. Then came a monkey, rooster, pig, ox (me), dragon, and snake. Most of the oxen look kind of strange - like goat, sheep, camel, or buffalo, so I just circled the most dignified-looking one with big horns at the bottom. My classmates from Hong Kong sent me this red greeting card shown above with nine oxen. So I asked myself what type of an ox would I want to be out of the nine sad-looking creatures. This is my year since I am an Earth Ox, according to the Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) and the twelve zodiac symbols. My grandson is also an Earth Ox as we are 60 years apart. Today is the third day of the Golden Ox year, after the unfortunate year of the Rat in 2020.
