Weʻre two weeks away from the start of the Lunar New Year. For the first time in 60 years, it will be the Year of the Fire Horse — a significant combination, especially in one Asian country.
You probably know all about the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac — maybe youʻre even familiar with the five elements that work in combination. But you may not know why this year is noteworthy in Japan — and used to be a really big deal.
It all comes down to a superstition — and baby girls.
The Asahi Shimbun traces it to 1662 — and a poetry collection which suggested that women born under this combination “have fiery tempers and shorten their husbands' lives.”
That narrative crushed the birth rate at the time of the last fire horse year. In 1966, the birth rate in Japan plummeted by 25% compared to the year before.
The Development Data group of the World Bank even did a blog entry on this — complete with a chart labelled “Japan experienced a sudden drop in fertility rate in 1966 due to superstition.”
That superstition really hit home in the world of arranged marriages, which the World Bank says made up about half of all Japanese marriages in the 1960's.
Today — far fewer arranged marriages — and a much lower fear factor for prospective parents in this year of the fire horse.
