As more than one billion people ring in the Chinese New Year on Thursday, a Russian zoo joined in on the celebrations by dyeing one of its resident goats blue.
The holiday, which this year falls on Feb. 19th, marks the beginning of a new year in the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Goat or, more specifically, the year of the blue, wooden goat.
A zoo in Yekaterinburg has taken the symbolism quite literally by painting one of its young goats blue. In the interests of safety, the animal was colored using food dye, Russian News Service cited the zoo as saying.
Visitors will have the chance to pet and feed the animal and to make a secret wish for the upcoming year, the zoo said.
Depending on the translation, this Chinese year's animal may also be known as a goat or a ram. But whatever its name, astrology websites, and many of the Russians who develop a humorous interest in them around this time of the year, agree that the ruminant is much more easygoing than the tempestuous horse that symbolized 2014.
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