THE CHINESE LUNAR CALENDAR
The Chinese calendar counts years in cycles of sixty years. Each year has a label consisting of two parts. The first component is the celestial stem being one of the five elements. The second component is the terrestrial branch being one of the twelve animal (zodiac) signs. The equation becomes five multiplied by twelve equalling sixty, or one cycle in the Chinese calendar.
There are five universal elements in Chinese philosophy: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. The elements were associated with five planets in ancient times, Jupiter=Wood, Mars=Fire, Saturn=Earth, Venus=Metal, Mercury=Water. Astrologers read the planet’s positioning to understand what influences would be dominant in a person’s life.The elements are also associated with colours: Green (Wood), Red (Fire), Brown (Earth), White (Metal) and Black (Water). The elements are further associated with the animal zodiac signs. Every twelve-year sequence, the animal takes on one of the elements, until all five have been used.
There are various stories about the origins of the twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac. Some use the Chinese gods, some use Buddha, but the essence of the story is that a higher being called all animals to a meeting and the first to arrive would be chosen. Before all this, the rat and the cat were good friends. But on the morning of the meeting, the rat, in her excitement, forgot to wake up the cat and through various means of trickery (or cleverness, as this rat interprets) got to the gods first and was thus chosen first. The cat slept in and missed the gathering, and since then, the two have been enemies.
| YEAR OF THE MOUSE/RAT (ZI) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4670 | 15 February 1972 | Black Water |
| 4682 | 02 February 1984 | Green Wood |
| 4694 | 19 February 1998 | Red Fire |
| 4706 | 07 February 2008 | Brown Earth |
| 4718 | 25 January 2020 | White Metal |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Charlotte Bronte, Truman Capote, Catherine I, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Shakespeare, George Washington, Plato, Peter Tchaikovsky.
| YEAR OF THE OX/COW (CHOU) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4671 | 03 February 1973 | Black Water |
| 4683 | 20 February 1985 | Green Wood |
| 4695 | 07 February 1997 | Red Fire |
| 4707 | 26 January 2009 | Brown Earth |
| 4719 | 12 February 2021 | White Metal |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Walt Disney, Clark Gable, Richard Nixon, Johann Sebastian Bach, Charles Chaplin, Vincent Van Gogh.
| YEAR OF THE TIGER (YIN) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4672 | 23 January 1974 | Green Wood |
| 4684 | 09 February 1986 | Red Fire |
| 4696 | 28 January 1998 | Brown Earth |
| 4708 | 14 February 2010 | White Metal |
| 4720 | 01 February 2022 | Black Water |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Sun Yat Sen, Queen Elizabeth II, Emily Dickinson, Isadora Duncan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Marilyn Monroe, Marco Polo, Beatrix Potter, Karl Marx, Ludwig van Beethoven
| YEAR OF THE RABBIT/HARE (MAO) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4673 | 11 February 1975 | Green Wood |
| 4685 | 29 January 1987 | Red Fire |
| 4697 | 16 February 1999 | Brown Earth |
| 4709 | 03 February 2011 | White Metal |
| 4721 | 22 January 2023 | Black Water |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY:
| YEAR OF THE DRAGON (CHEN) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4674 | 31 January 1976 | Red Fire |
| 4686 | 17 February 1988 | Brown Earth |
| 4698 | 05 February 2000 | White Metal |
| 4710 | 23 January 2012 | Black Water |
| 4722 | 10 February 2024 | Green Wood |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Susan B. Anthony, Joan of Arc, Pearl Buck, Sigmund Freud, Theodore Seuss Geisel, John Lennon, Florence Nightingale
| YEAR OF THE SNAKE (SI) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4675 | 18 February 1977 | Red Fire |
| 4687 | 06 February 1989 | Brown Earth |
| 4699 | 24 January 2001 | White Metal |
| 4711 | 10 February 2013 | Black Water |
| 4723 | 29 January 2025 | Green Wood |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Charles Darwin, Elizabeth I, Picasso, Anne Frank, Mahatma Gandhi, Carole King, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe
| YEAR OF THE HORSE (WU) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4676 | 07 February 1978 | Brown Earth |
| 4688 | 27 January 1990 | White Metal |
| 4700 | 12 February 2002 | Black Water |
| 4712 | 31 January 2014 | Green Wood |
| 4724 | 17 February 2026 | Red Fire |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Kim Jong Il, Neil Armstrong, Muammar Gaddafi, Clint Eastwood, Charlotte Bronte, Truman Capote, Catherine I, Wolfgang Mozart, William Shakespeare, George Washington, Plato, Peter Tchaikovsky
| YEAR OF THE GOAT/SHEEP (WEI) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4677 | 28 January 1979 | Brown Earth |
| 4689 | 15 February 1991 | White Metal |
| 4701 | 01 February 2003 | Black Water |
| 4713 | 19 February 2015 | Green Wood |
| 4725 | 06 February 2027 | Red Fire |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Mark Twain, Rudolph Valentino, Barbara Walters, Orville Wright
| YEAR OF THE MONKEY (SHEN) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4678 | 16 February 1980 | White Metal |
| 4690 | 04 February 1992 | Black Water |
| 4702 | 22 January 2004 | Green Wood |
| 4714 | 08 February 2016 | Red Fire |
| 4726 | 26 January 2028 | Brown Earth |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Julius Caesar, Bette Davis, Annie Oakley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Betsy Ross, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Harry S. Truman, Leonardo da Vinci, Alice Walker
| YEAR OF THE ROOSTER (YOU) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4679 | 05 February 1981 | White Metal |
| 4691 | 23 January 1993 | Black Water |
| 4703 | 09 February 2005 | Green Wood |
| 4715 | 28 January 2017 | Red Fire |
| 4727 | 13 February 2029 | Brown Earth |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Confucius, Catherine the Great, Amelia Earhart, Rudyard Kipling, Groucho Marx
| YEAR OF THE DOG (XU) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4680 | 16 February 1982 | Black Water |
| 4692 | 04 February 1994 | Green Wood |
| 4704 | 22 January 2006 | Red Fire |
| 4716 | 08 February 2018 | Brown Earth |
| 4728 | 26 January 2030 | White Metal |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Dorothea Dix, Benjamin Franklin, George Gershwin, Jane Goodall, Golda Meir, Socrates, Donald Trump
| YEAR OF THE PIG/BOAR (HAI) | ||
| CHINESE YEAR | GREGORIAN LUNAR START DATE | COLOUR/ELEMENT |
| 4681 | 13 February 1983 | Black Water |
| 4693 | 31 January 1995 | Green Wood |
| 4705 | 18 February 2007 | Red Fire |
| 4717 | 05 February 2019 | Brown Earth |
| 4729 | 22 January 2031 | White Metal |
FAMOUS PEOPLE IN HISTORY: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ernest Hemingway, Mahalia Jackson, Albert Schweitzer, Henry Ford, Ronald Reagan