Year of Bars
Meaning: leopard, tiger
A short history
"Bars" is used in Turkic languages for the big spotted or striped cats. It is an old word linked with courage, also found in personal names and titles.
Cultural background
Bars is an old word that appears in Turkic personal names (Baybars, Aybars); Kashgari's list gives this year as "pars". The winged "Ak Bars" on the coat of arms of Tatarstan still lives on as an emblem, and in Kazakh "barys" names the snow leopard. It stands in the same slot as the Chinese tiger but recalls the big cat of Central Asia's mountains.
Symbolic qualities
- brave
- bold
- independent
- protective
Bars is the symbol of courage that draws its own path. It does not stay silent in the face of unfairness and protects those it loves. Its shadow side is leaping too soon out of impatience.
Things you might reflect on
- Is there a step you keep postponing that asks for courage?
- Whom or what do you find worth protecting?
- Where does your boldness help you most, and where does it tire you?
Years it falls on
Each year begins on 21 March and ends on 20 March of the following year.
1902 · 1914 · 1926 · 1938 · 1950 · 1962 · 1974 · 1986 · 1998 · 2010 · 2022 · 2034 · 2046 · 2058 · 2070 · 2082 · 2094
Chinese counterpart: Tiger →Where does the Turkic 12-animal calendar come from?
In the Divanu Lugati't-Türk, written in the 11th century, Mahmud of Kashgar explains that the Turks counted years by the names of twelve animals and lists them in order. The work also tells a story about the origin of the cycle: of the animals driven into the Ila (Ili) river before a ruler, the names of the twelve that crossed were given to the years.
An older witness is the Orkhon inscriptions (8th century). The Kül Tegin inscription dates his death to the "koń yıl" (year of the sheep, 731) and the Bilge Kagan inscription dates the kagan's death to the "it yıl" (year of the dog, 734). So animal year names were already used to give dates in that period.
The cycle follows the same order as the Chinese calendar and is a heritage shared with neighbouring cultures. Sources reckon the start of the year differently; this page takes Nevruz (21 March) as the start of the year.
- Kaşgarlı Mahmud, Divanu Lugati't-Türk (1072–1077).
- Kül Tegin yazıtı (732) ve Bilge Kağan yazıtı (735), Orhun Vadisi.
- Erkoç, H. İ., Divanü Lugati't-Türk'te Vahşi Hayvanlarla İlgili Kelimeler ve Terimler, Hacettepe Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 23 (2015), 177-208.
- Karimova, G. ve Türkmen, F., Kazakistan'da Hayvan Kültü ve 12 Hayvanlı Halk Takvimi (2022).
The twelve animals
For entertainment and self-reflection. Year animals are presented as cultural history and character symbolism; they do not tell you what a year holds.
The images on this page were generated with AI.