Chinese zodiac: the Year of the Snake

Wrought iron articulated snake, Japan, mid-18th century. Museum no. M.38-1947

The Chinese use the lunar calendar for festive occasions including the New Year which falls somewhere between late January and early February. The cycle of twelve animal signs derives from Chinese folklore as a method for naming the years. The animals follow one another in an established order and are repeated every twelve years - rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each animal has particular characteristics and people born in a certain year are believed to take on these characteristics.

Snake characteristics

People born in the Year of the Snake are intelligent, wise and charming. They are usually good-looking and alluring. They are also deep thinkers, like to plan well and are determined in whatever they do. Snake people are quiet, reserved and are good at giving advice to others. However, they strongly distrust other people and choose friends carefully. They happily help people but often exaggerate the help they have given. They are financially fortunate and enjoy the good things in life. Snake people can be passionate, possessive and jealous and they need a lot of security.

Snake Years: 1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025

The following objects show examples of snakes from different parts of the V&A's collections. The snake has different meanings to different cultures and religions throughout the world.

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  William Blake, 'Eve tempted by the serpent'

  William Blake
  'Eve tempted by the serpent'
  England
  1799-1800
  Museum no. P.28-1953

  Blake drew his inspiration for this scene from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament and from John Milton's epic poem 'Paradise Lost' (1667). In the story of Adam and Eve the serpent represents evil. It tempts Eve to eat the forbidden apple leading to God banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

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  'Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta', painting

  Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta
  Painting
  India
  about 1850-1870
  Museum no. D.419-1889

  The Hindu deity Lord Vishnu is often depicted laying on the many-headed serpent Ananta floating on the ocean, while he dreams the universe into existence. Ananta, meaning 'Endless', represents the eternal and the cycle of cosmic birth and death repeated forever. The serpent is also called Shesha, meaning 'Remainder', representing that which 'remains' when the universe ends, and which fuels the start of the next cosmic cycle.

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  Sword guard 'tsuba', Michitoshi

  Sword guard 'tsuba'
  Michitoshi
  Japan
  1800-1850
  Museum no. 1461-1888

  The main function of the tsuba is to prevent the warrior's hand from sliding up on to the blade of the sword during combat. It also serves to balance the weight of the blade and, to some extent, protect the hand from an opponent's blade. This tsuba is made of brass in the form of a bell and is inlaid with gold, silver and shakudo with raised decoration of a snake with gold and shakudo eyes and a copper tongue.

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  Netsuke, Japan

  Netsuke
  Japan
  18th century
  Museum no. 947-1910

  The netsuke is a toggle. Japanese men used netsuke to suspend various pouches and containers from their sashes by a silk cord. Netsuke had to be small and not too heavy, yet bulky enough to do the job. They needed to be compact with no sharp protruding edges, yet also strong and hard-wearing. Above all, they had to have the means for attaching a cord. Netsuke were made in a variety of forms, the most widely appreciated being the katabori (shape carving), a three-dimensional carving, such as this one in the form of a coiled snake. A netsuke portraying an animal from the East Asian zodiac was particularly associated with the New Year festivities of the appropriate year, but could also be used at any time during that particular year, and again 12 years later in accordance with the cycle.

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  'Snakes and Ladders', board game

  'Snakes and Ladders'
  Board game
  England
  1920s
  Museum no. MISC.5-1980

  Snakes and Ladders has been a favourite race game in Britain for over 100 years. When it was originally devised Snakes and Ladders was a moral game with virtues in the shape of the ladders, allowing the players to reach heaven quickly, while the vices, in the shape of snakes, forced the player back down. Snakes and Ladders is probably based upon a very old Indian game called Moksha-Patamu, which was used for religious instruction and had 12 vices but only 4 virtues. According to Hindu teaching, good and evil exist side by side in man: but only virtuous acts - represented by the ladders - will shorten the soul's journey through a series of incarnations to the state of ultimate perfection. Human wrongdoing symbolised by the head of the snake leads to reincarnation in a lower, animal form.

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  Earthenware dish, Bernard Palissy

  Earthenware dish
  Bernard Palissy
  France
  1565-1585
  Museum no. 5476-1859

  This dramatic dish with its lush decoration of slithering snakes, lizards, fish and other creatures is characteristic of work by the 16th century potter, Bernard Palissy. Palissy is famed for his ceramics with reliefs cast from reptiles and fish, and his developments with coloured glazes.

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  'The Royal Pastime of Cupid or Entertaining Game of the Snake', board game

  'The Royal Pastime of Cupid or Entertaining Game of the Snake'
  Board game
  R H Laurie (publishers)
  England
  About 1850.
  Museum no. E.1747-1954

  The Game of the Snake is an adaptation of the Game of the Goose. It is known to have been first published in about 1750. It is likely that this particular version is an impression from the original engraving plate with some of the lettering altered. The game begins near the head of the snake and finishes at its tail. Instead of having a separate rule booklet, the instructions for playing the game are printed on either side of the snake.

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  Bonbonniere, embossed copper

  Bonbonniere
  Embossed copper
  England
  1765-1775
  Museum no. C.478-1914

  Bonbonnieres were small boxes for comfits or sweets. Tiny lozenges flavoured with roses, violets, liquorice, mint or cloves, for instance, would freshen the breath, calm a cough or settle a stomach. These charming boxes drew their initial inspiration from porcelain versions from Meissen, Chelsea and the French soft-paste factories. But the huge variety of novelty designs for enamelled bonbonnieres was a manifestation of the competitive imaginations of the many toy makers of the West Midlands. This coiled snake's scales were made by light incisions through the painted enamel colours before firing. The earliest embossed hollow shapes were formed by careful hammering or pressing by hand. Then a method was developed of striking the thin copper sheet laid on a concave hardwood 'anvil' with a similarly shaped convex hardwood mallet. Copper could also be spun on a hardwood shaped chuck to form a circular hollow shape. Separate hollow parts were laced together and beaten smooth. After 1769, steel stamps were invented by a Birmingham toymaker, and the process was further facilitated by the 1790s when more durable cast-steel dies were introduced for stamping out the forms.

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  Staff, Armenia

  Staff
  Armenia
  About 1700-1825
  Museum no. 246:1, 2-1896

  Snakes have a variety of symbolic meanings in art from evil and temptation to fertility and wisdom. This object is a pastoral staff which would once have been carried by an Armenian bishop or priest who held the degree of doctor of theology. It is formed as a double serpent to signify the wisdom of his office. A full-length staff would be approximately 1.5 metres long and end with a tau cross, like the letter T.

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  'Head of Medusa', sculpture

  'Head of Medusa'
  Sculpture
  Benvenuto Cellini
  Italy
  About 1545-1550
  Museum no. A.14-1964

  In the Greek myth, the Gorgons Stheno, Medusa was one of three hideous sisters. She was the only mortal of the three. They were winged, had hair of snakes and turned all who looked at them to stone. Benvenuto Cellini, one of the most celebrated Italian Renaissance sculptors, is famed for his monumental statue of Perseus. Perseus was the hero who beheaded Medusa with the aid of a reflection in the polished bronze surface of his shield (a gift from the goddess Athena) so to avoid her deadly gaze. Medusa's head is modelled with hair writhing with snakes. The final sculpture stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence. This bronze sculpture includes Perseus' hand holding the head and is believed to be one of many models made before the final piece was cast. Almost all the other models for this work are now lost.