# the year of the snake **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 20, 2001, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050 "2001-01-20T20:18:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/1 "2001-01-20T20:18:09Z")
in work we were making plans for lunch in honour of the year of the snake. i mentioned that i found it strange that of the 5 people i knew born in snake years, all of them had a snake phobia. 2 were extremely phobic to the point of not being able to have a picture of a snake near them. 2 were able to see pictures but not touch them. 1 was okay with pictures but a snake toy would make them very uncomfortable. since i only know a small sampling of snake people, i turn to y’all with the following questions: are you a snake child or do you know someone who is? are you or the person you know phobic about snakes? the snake years are as follows: feb. 4th, 1905 - jan. 24th,1906 jan. 23rd, 1917 - feb.10th, 1918 feb. 10th, 1929 - jan. 29th, 1930 jan. 27th, 1941 - feb. 14th, 1942 feb. 14th, 1953 - feb. 2nd, 1954 feb. 2nd, 1965 - jan. 20th, 1966 feb. 18th, 1977 - feb. 6th, 1978 feb. 6th, 1989 - jan. 26th, 1990 thank you. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/2 "2001-01-20T21:47:21Z")
My son is a snake and he has no problems with either our boa or our python. (Of course, the boa is a Kenyan Sand Boa and only around 20 - 22 inches long and the python is a Ball Python that is still fewer than 3 feet long, but a phobia would not generally be affected by size.) (I wonder what Melissa Kaplan’s Chinese sign is?) ---
**Author:** ![pythonzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@pythonzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pythonzzz)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/3 "2001-01-20T22:51:03Z")
I was born a poor… Oops, wrong reference - sorry. I am a ‘year of the snake’ kid. No phobias here about snakes, or any other critters for that matter. I have had two Burmese pythons, 14’ and 16’, and currently have a royal python(3’) and a red-tail boa(12’). Got any questions, I’ll be glad to answer 'em. The biggest phobia about snakes seems to be the fact they eat “cute little bunnies and rats”. Each time I hear that phrase, I gently inform the speaker about how the whole prey is being used by the snake. Then I remind then how humans only utilize a couple of cow chunks each time they hit the drive-thru. Reminder to self - pick up 6-pack of rats on the way home… ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/4 "2001-01-20T22:53:39Z")
I was born in the year of the snake. I like snakes - my older brothers used to catch small snakes and bring them home as pets. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/5 "2001-01-21T00:16:49Z")
I’m a Year of the Horse. I HATE snakes. Oh god-even pictures of snakes or snakes on tv scare the crap out of me. I’ll run screaming and flinching. ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/6 "2001-01-21T00:46:24Z")
I liked it a lot better when it was the year of the Dragon. For obvious reasons 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/7 "2001-01-21T02:35:22Z")
Year of the Snake person here. I think they’re kinda neat, but I don’t really have much opportunity to interact with snakes. Last time I was in PetCo, two of the checkout girls were wearing snakes across their shoulders. I thought that was pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/8 "2001-01-21T02:45:32Z")
interesting, snake children of the sdmb not so afraid of snakes. that brings us to: 4 non phobic (sdmb) 5 phobic (work) 1 phobic horse child ftr i 'm a rat child not snake phobic. just don’t show me a picture of beetles. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/9 "2001-01-21T02:58:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by red\_dragon60 \* > \*\*I liked it a lot better when it was the year of the Dragon. For obvious reasons 😃 \*\* Hmmm. I’m a “year of the dragon” and was never bothered in the slightest by one. Of course they tend to persecute virgins and actually I… Never mind. Veb ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/10 "2001-01-21T11:34:26Z")
Year of the Rabbit (or Cat, depending on which horoscope book you read) here. And I like snakes IRL, and most reptiles in general. But no roaches. Ick. Ecch. Ptui. Brrrrrrrrr! ::shivers:: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/11 "2001-01-22T02:08:42Z")
um, there is no Year of the Cat, IIRC. The story goes that the emperor invited all the animals over for a banquet, but the Cat was too lazy to show up and so the Cat has no year named for him. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/12 "2001-01-22T02:15:28Z")
I always thought that too, but I have a postcard (didn’t buy the book, too expensive) that has ‘cat’ as an alternate to ‘rabbit’ with the same dates and info as ‘rabbit’. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-year-of-the-snake/51050/13 "2001-01-22T16:20:34Z")
FWIW, I’m a Year of the Ox, and I’m deathly afraid of cattle. 🙂