“Samjae” (三災) is a folk idea long passed down in East Asia — a period of caution said to arrive for three years once every twelve. It is set by the zodiac animal of your birth year, and the first year is called “deul-samjae” (entering), the second “nul-samjae” (staying), the third “nal-samjae” (leaving). The old people advised that in this time, rather than rushing great undertakings, one should lower body and mind and pass the days with care.
Samjae binds the animals into three groups. Monkey·Rat·Dragon meet samjae in the years of Tiger·Rabbit·Dragon; Snake·Rooster·Ox in the years of Pig·Rat·Ox; Tiger·Horse·Dog in the years of Monkey·Rooster·Dog; Pig·Rabbit·Goat in the years of Snake·Horse·Goat. So the three animals of your own group enter samjae together in the same years. After three years, samjae quietly withdraws.
Here is something worth stressing. Samjae is often inflated into a “fearsome year when great disaster strikes,” used as a tool of fear to sell costly talismans or rituals. But its true grain is not so. Samjae is neither a curse nor a fixed misfortune — rather it is closer to a caution light of old wisdom saying, “for now, postpone rash expansion or risky gambles, tend your health and your people, and catch your breath.” Like the yellow light of a traffic signal, it does not say stop, but slow down and look around.
So there is no need to be frightened or to shrink because it is a samjae year. Instead, make this time a “year of maintenance” — caring for your body, reconsidering excessive debt or hasty contracts, and tending precious relationships with devotion. Review big decisions once more carefully, and prepare new challenges more firmly. A samjae spent this way remains not as a dreaded misfortune but, once passed, as a grateful time that made you sturdier. As FortuneLeaf always does, what samjae offers is not a threat that frightens you to sell you something, but a soft reflection that lets you slow your step for a while and look back at yourself and those beside you — for a careful year is not misfortune but a tender rest to catch your breath before the next leap.