Where did the phrase "Monkey Year, Horse Month" come from in the first place? Why do we say that "Monkey Year, Horse Month" is like this?

There are generally three theories about the origin of the Horse Month in the Year of the Monkey

1. According to the "Modern Chinese Dictionary", "Horse Month in the Year of the Monkey" should be "Horse Month in the Year of the Donkey", which refers to the unknowable year and month. Can't be achieved. The lunar calendar uses twelve zodiac animals representing the earthly branches to record the years. There is no year of the donkey, so it is also called the "year of the monkey and the month of the horse."

2. There is also a misinformation that the "horse month in the year of the monkey" is the "leap twelfth lunar month in the year of the monkey", which means that the prospects of certain things are not yet known, and it also means that the future results of things are unpredictable.

3. In addition, some people believe that the origin of "Monkey Year, Horse Month" cannot be verified, and it is mostly derived from the homophonic variant of "He Year, Horse Month" in Tianjin.

We talk about what happens in the Year of the Monkey, the Horse and the Moon, because the Horse and the Moon in the Year of the Monkey mostly means that things cannot wait and are far away.

Extended information

Zhao Zhiheng, an astronomy education expert and director of the Tianjin Astronomical Society, said that thousands of years ago, our country had the method of "chronicles of stems and branches" to count years and months. , count days, time. That is, using the twelve earthly branch symbols (Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai) and the ten heavenly stem symbols (A, B, B, D, Wu, Ji , Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) cooperate with each other.

"In order to popularize the method of 'Chronology of Gans and Branches' to the people, our ancestors invented the 12 zodiac chronology method." Zhao Zhiheng said, but many people may not know that in our country, the twelve zodiac signs are not only It is used to mark the year, but also to mark the month and day. "The zodiac signs corresponding to the first lunar month to the twelfth lunar month each year are: tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, and ox."

Zhao Zhiheng said that every year It is a horse month, and it is fixed in the fifth month of the lunar calendar. "2016 is the Year of the Monkey in the lunar calendar. June 5 to July 3 in the solar calendar is the fifth month of the lunar calendar, which is the 'Horse Month in the Year of the Monkey'."

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Horse Month in the Year of the Monkey