Superstitious or not, in countries that still maintain the tradition of celebrating Lunar New Year, especially in China, many families try their best to have children in the Year of the Dragon, according to SCMP.
According to folk belief, people born in the year of the Dragon will live a successful life. More babies are born in China in the year of the Dragon than in any other year.
But right after the Year of the Dragon, the Year of the Snake is a time of declining birth rates in China.
In Chinese culture, snakes are often associated with cunning and danger. In many legends and traditional stories, snakes are often villains.
This directly affects the perception of people born in the year of the Snake, especially when it comes to fertility - most parents in China want their children to be born in a lucky year.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the number of babies born in the most recent Year of the Snake - 2013 - was 1.97 million lower than in the Year of the Dragon 2012. In Hong Kong (China), the number of babies born in 2013 was nearly 30,000 lower than the previous year.
Many users on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo have been spreading an old-fashioned view about children born in the Year of the Snake.
“Although I also want to have children soon, I still avoid giving birth in the Year of the Snake,” one user commented on Weibo. “The snake does not sound as majestic as the dragon, and this mascot has many anecdotes like a villain,” one customer shared.
However, snakes are not always considered bad. For some people, they are symbols of special virtues.
A user of Xiaohongshu, a Chinese Instagram-like platform, said that snakes can be seen as a symbol of wisdom and intelligence. People born in the year of the snake are often intelligent, insightful and ambitious. Many people born in the year of the snake have achieved extraordinary success, such as singer Taylor Swift, Teresa Teng and actor Aaron Kwok.
Thanks to the lower birth rate in the Year of the Snake, some believe that children born in the Year of the Snake will have a less competitive life when they grow up and will have an easier time attending top schools.
Besides traditional beliefs, according to modern research, a child's prospects depend more on the parents' upbringing and their own efforts than on a good or bad birth year according to folk beliefs.
