Cardinal sign (astrology) Cardinal sign (astrology) The practice of astrology recognizes four cardinal signs of the zodiac: Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn — sometimes called reacting signs. It associates those people born "under" one of these with certain human behaviors and traits like being active, self-motivated, insightful and ambitious. The word "cardinal" originates from the Latin word for "important," since they each mark the turning point of a temperate season. They were called "moveable" by traditional astrologers because, as Bonatti says, the "air" changes when the Sun enters each of these signs, bringing a change of season. Sometimes the word "cardinal" is confused
Chinese zodiac normally refers specifically to a sheep in the Korean language (where a native Korean word 염소 "yeomso" is used to mean "Goat"), although the Chinese source of the loanword "yang" may refer to any goat-antelope. The Japanese zodiac includes the "Sheep" ("hitsuji") instead of the "Goat" (which would be "yagi"), and the "Wild boar" ("inoshishi", "i") instead of the "Pig" ("buta"). The Japanese have, since 1873, celebrated the beginning of the new year on January 1 as per the Gregorian calendar. The Vietnamese zodiac is almost identical to the Chinese zodiac except the second animal is the "Water Buffalo" instead