I WONDER about strange things.
About two weeks ago, a national non-working holiday was declared (for the first time, if I recall well) to allow Filipinos to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, this year being the Year of the Sheep, the Ram or the Goat.
Of all the animals in the Chinese Lunar calendar, this is the only one that has three choices - sheep, ram or goat. It must however be pointed out that a ram is actually a male sheep, as distinguished from a female sheep which is called a ewe (pronounced as you and not eeeew) and a baby sheep which is called a lamb.
-oOo-
That said, it brings to mind a few questions. If one chooses to call this year the Year of the Ram, would it not be politically incorrect, as in gender insensitive, since this would include only the male sheep? If this is so, then why couldn't the Year of the Horse have an alternative of the Year of the Mare (that is, a female horse) or the Year of the Ponyto balance things out? Or, for that matter, why not the Year of the Ewe in lieu of the Year of the Ram?
I think calling this year the Year of the Sheep is better. The word sheep is similar to the word human. These words are all-inclusive, incapable of making distinctions in gender and age. (Although by extension, the word humankind should not be applied to sheep, as in sheepkind!)
-oOo-
This actually brings us to only two general choices: the Year of the Sheep or the Year of the Goat.
There are only two similarities between a sheep and a goat that I can think of. First, both are farm animals that do not perform actual work, like a carabao or an ox. (Not unlike some people I guess) Sheep and goats simply laze around in the farm.
Sheep and goats are not domesticated animals like our pet dogs or cats. Sheep and goats are untrainable. It is highly unlikely that they can be taught to sit, beg or roll over. Unlike our pets, sheep or goats are "un-snuggable." That is why they are kept in the farm, and not allowed in our homes, or to sleep in bed with us.
On the other hand, I think that kids, or baby goats, are really cute when they are still young and playful, bouncing around and bumping each other. But I have never found real live lambs to be cute, except as illustrations in nursery rhyme books and in Disney Channel shows.
-oOo-
Second, bothsheep and goats are herbivores (that is, they are strict vegetarians). They are unlikely to dine on steak, bacon, chicken, venison and the like, for meals.
Adult sheep and goats are not fun to watch; they are truly boring farm animals. They simply stand with their heads bowed low enough for their snouts to reach grass, and then they raise their heads and chew. Sometimes, they don't even raise their heads (as if embarrassed with their lifestyle); they just chew. And when they have consumed the grass around them, they move on to greener pastures. Theirs is a fundamentally ho-hum life.
-oOo-
However, the differences between sheep and goats undoubtedly surpass their similarities! They look absolutely different from each other. A sheep is covered with thick wool (which, in real life, is truly far from the stereotype fluffy white wool), making it look bulky; while a goat is covered with short hair which makes it look... trim (?). An adult male goat can grow both horns and a goatee; while an adult male sheep can only grow horns (since its face has too much wool and lacks the space to grow a beard).
Sheep come in all solid shades of dirty cream, and they are not spotted. While I may perhaps know a few, I have never seen a black sheep. Goats, on the other hand, come in all shades of solid and spotted black, white and brown.
-oOo-
In my curiosity and confusion about the sheep and the goat being alternates in the Chinese Lunar calendar, I have come to a likely explanation why this is so. And I think it is the result of a rather common human adult misunderstanding.
Human adults tend to mix up the sounds that a sheep and a goat make, causing confusion. While the sounds both make may seem the same to adults, children will agree with me that a sheep says, "Baaaaaa..." and a goat says, "Meeeeee..."
-oOo-
In the end (and totally unrelated to what I have written), I do prefer the gentle sheep (that Mary somehow was able to bring to school) over the (three bad billy) goats (gruff).