My "Too Cute"s

Monday, February 05, 2007

Welcome to the Year of the Pig a.k.a Boar




Some days back, a friend asked me what chinese year would it be this year? I said I am not sure. She said it was very strange that there was no picture of any animal representing the coming year. So she's guessing it must be the year of the pig. So we asked my mom, who gave it a little thought, and confirmed that yea, most certainly this year is the year of the piggy!


"A-hah! No wonder! I guessed correctly after all," said my friend.

It's interesting, isn't it? That when it's the year of the pig, there is no sign nor sight of the pig. I know it's supposed to be haram for Muslims to consume or touch a pig but to have no pictures! To not know what is a pig! To not recognize a pig when you see one and touch one thinking that it's not one! That's depriving people too!

Here's a story my cousin who operates a pet shop told me:

One day a boy runs into the shop excitedly and exclaims to his dad, "Aboh! Aboh! Tengok, Aboh! Babi!" which translates "Dad! Dad! Look, Dad! Pig!"

Dad slaps one hand on the back of his son's head saying, "Itu bukan babi!" which translate, "That's not a pig!"

"Habis tu?" or "Then, what is it?" the boy asks.

The father looked at the raccoon and said, "Itu musang!"





At that time I found it amusing that the guy didn't know his musang from his babi, then, it occurred to me that the Malay word for raccoon could be musang. Is it? Seems unlikely but who knows....

All this while, a musang to me is a fox and a serigala is a wolf. Am I mistaken? I have been told by a friend that a raccoon is a jebon. Where do all these names come from? But it was reported some months back in the papers that a village in Perak, if I am not mistaken, thought they found a new species of animal which turned out to be a mongoose! HA!HA!HA! For those of you who don't know what a mongoose looks like, do watch Casino Royale `cause there's a mongoose fight scene somewhere at the beginning of the movie.

I am going somewhere with this but I am afraid there's gonna be a Part 2. Soon, I promise, soon.




3 comments:

Mae said...

Hehe, should be interesting to read your part 2. Come to think of it...ya no signs of the little piggie here, maybe Singapore got:)

Unknown said...

Asked my hubby if raccoon is musang & he said "no..musang is fox. Raccoon is raccoon la...mana ada raccoon in Malay, bukan local animal" "Well, do we have giraffe in Malaysia?
"No, kat zoo adalah"
"And hw come we hv zirafah then?"
"Don't know la all these words & their origin..Shd asked u instead..."
Well...don't, I don't know either...

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

waiting for ur part II...*fingers drumming* ;)