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