HANOI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - As China, Japan and other East Asian countries prepare to celebrate the start of the Lunar Year of the Rabbit on Sunday, the people of Vietnam will be an exception - welcoming instead the Year of the Cat. There is no official explanation for when and why the Vietnamese embraced the cat instead of the rabbit. "It doesn't have the same power as a cat", Hanoi resident, Ngo Quy Dung, said of the rabbit, as he proudly noted that he was born 60 years ago in the Year of the Cat. Another resident of Hanoi, Nguyen Kim Chi, 64, agreed. "The cat looks more majestic because it also resembles a little tiger," she said, while taking photographs besides a large cat statue at the Central Park in the capital.

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