What Chinese Zodiac Is 1924? Year of the Wood Rat

When the 1924 Wood Rat year starts and ends

The 1924 Wood Rat year began at Lunar New Year on February 5, 1924 and lasted until January 23, 1925, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Feb 5 1924 therefore belongs to the Water Pig year that started in 1923, while someone born in early 1925, up to Jan 23, is still a Wood Rat. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, which is why the start date moves between January 21 and February 20 instead of staying on January 1. The same Wood Rat combination also falls in 1984 and 2044, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1924 fell on a Tuesday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Wood Rat personality

Babies born in a Wood Rat year are traditionally pictured as bright, friendly planners who like to share their discoveries. The Rat's watery cleverness runs into Wood's urge to grow, so the classic portrait is a resourceful person with a community streak, happiest when a good idea benefits a whole circle of friends. The usual caution is overcommitting and running low on energy without noticing until late.

Wood is the element of spring and of things that grow, so a Wood year is traditionally said to lend any animal a generous, expansive streak. Classical descriptions link it with kindness, idealism and a talent for cooperation: Wood people are often pictured as the ones who start community projects, mentor younger colleagues and believe that most situations can improve with patience and goodwill. The element also carries a strong sense of fairness and a dislike of waste. Its shadow side, according to most readings, is overextension. Like a plant reaching in every direction, a Wood-year person may take on too much, trust too readily or struggle to say no when a cause seems worthwhile.

1924 in numerology and the twelve-year cycle

In numerology the year reduces to 7, the number of reflection, analysis and inner work, giving a 7 year a quieter, more searching character. The digits of 1924 add up to 16, which reduces to 7. In the twelve-year cycle the Rat is the first animal, earthly branch Zi, with Water as its fixed element and Yang polarity. The year element is Wood, and in the five-element cycles water generates Wood. The year before was the Water Pig and the year after is the Wood Ox.

In the traditional sexagenary count the year is called Jia-Zi: Jia is the Wood heavenly stem and Zi is the Rat's earthly branch. Stems and branches alternate between yang and yin together, which is why yang stems only ever meet yang animals.