The Year of the Rabbit - with a Swedish Twist

Year of the Rabbit – with a Swedish twist

Tonight at midnight the world enters the Year of the Rabbit. People in the Chinese cultural spere will be clad in red clothes, firecrackers will be set off and red envelopes will be exchanged. These habits can be traced back to legend.

According to folklore a terrible monster that looked like a combination of an ox and a tiger with prominent incisors, came to destroy villages every year at New Year’s Eve. The monster was called “nian” the same pronunciation and character as year.

If you turn the nian character 年 90 degrees to the right you can almost see a depiction of the terrible monster. Many Chinese characters need to be turned 90 degrees reveal their pictogram origin like 象，鱼 and 牛 for example (elephant, fish and ox).

Every year before new year's eve, villagers fled their dwellings to escape the horrible Nian. One year an old man turned up and stayed in the village when everybody - as always - took refuge elsewhere. The next day, to the immense surprise of the returning villagers the village was unharmed. The old man had scared off Nian with the help of red objects and fire crackers. This habit was then and there picked up by all Chinese people.

Another story is that it was believed that Nian would come and make children crazy if they slept over New Years eve. Parents would therefore give children coins and a red envelope to play with to help them stay awake. After having played almost the whole night one child was extremely sleepy. He managed to put eight coins in the envelope before he could not fight off sleep any longer. He fell into a deep sleep. ?Strangely enough nothing bad happened to him. The eight coins had turned into the eight fairies that scared off Nian and protected the child. The custom of red envelopes was born.

The Rabbit is the fourth animal in the Zodiac and in 2023 the twelve animals and five elements combine into a water rabbit with strong influence of wood. Since trees need water to grow we can expect 2023 to be a prosperous year. After the usual turbulence of the year of the Tiger, the Rabbit year usually brings peace and stability. Under such circumstances and under the influence of the highly sexual Rabbit this year is associated with having many children. However, 2023 may be a year that brakes that trend. As officially reported, China's population is from last year shrinking after having peaked at 1,41 billion people.

The personality of the rabbit is soft and orderly. Some even call the Rabbit a “yes-man” but all rabbits have a clear bottom line. Don’t underestimate the Rabbit!

Every year I make an illustration with a connection between Sweden and China. The most obvious Swedish rabbit is “Lille Skutt”. He is the close and anxious friend of Bamse’s. Bamse is a bear cartoon movie story and comic strip watched and read by almost all Swedish children. I was created by Rune Andréasson in 1962 and epitomizes the Swedish character. Bamse is the strongest bear in the world (after he eats “dunder” honey made by his Grandmother) and is the most kind and righteous creature around. Funnily enough many of the characters live on top of Gulilin-like mountain tops. Bamse is always ready to help anyone in need and to fight off evil – often in the form of Vargen – the black wolf. ?Lille Skutt and Skalman (an extremely time conscious and innovative Turtle) accompany Bamse on lots of adventures. Although anxious and oftentimes scared Lille Skutt manages to overcome his fears and is always there for Bamse and his friends. Lille Skutt is a Rabbit that you always can count on.

My New Year illustration of 2023 is a traditional paper cut of Lille Skutt in a Chinese setting.

Wish you all a prosperous and peaceful year of the Rabbit!

By: Mats Harborn 20230121