Happy new year! At midnight I was sitting next to an off-duty clown. But enough about that.

2007 is a Year of the Fire Boar. The new Chinese year won't start for another couple of months in China, but in Japan, the calendars were aligned long ago and we are already riding the flaming hog.

In Japanese, "Fire Boar" is 丁亥 hinoto-i: the i is the same one that's in the modern word for wild boar, inoshishi, and hinoto literally means "younger fire brother" (火の弟). This is contrasted with hinoe, "older fire brother" (火の兄). Hinoto is the yin version of the fire element, and hinoe is the yang version, which we just enjoyed in 2006, a Year of the (Elder-Brother) Fire Dog.

(Note that there is never a Year of the Yang Fire Boar or of the Yin Fire Dog, because the elemental and animal cycles mesh too cleanly.)

Things that have happened during Fire Boar years:

• Kick-off of Japan's Warring States period with the Ōnin war, dealing a terrible blow to the tradition of nishijin weaving (1467)
• Most recent eruption of Mt Fuji (1707)
• Publication of Unua Libro ("First Book"), the draft specification for Esperanto (1887)
• Coming into effect of Japan's postwar constitution (1947)