What Chinese Zodiac Is 1936? Year of the Fire Rat

When the 1936 Fire Rat year starts and ends

The 1936 Fire Rat year began at Lunar New Year on January 24, 1936 and lasted until February 10, 1937, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Jan 24 1936 therefore belongs to the Wood Pig year that started in 1935, while someone born in early 1937, up to Feb 10, is still a Fire 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 Fire Rat combination also falls in 1996, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1936 fell on a Friday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Fire Rat personality

Fire Rat years are associated with energetic, outspoken and adventurous people. The Rat's Water checks Fire in the controlling cycle, so the classic picture is a cool head paired with a hot temperament. People born then are often vivid, charming and quick to act. The usual caution is restlessness and sharp words, which a short pause before responding tends to soften.

Fire is the element of summer and full daylight, and a Fire year is traditionally said to turn up the volume of whatever animal it meets. Descriptions link it with passion, charisma, courage and a love of movement and expression. Fire-year people are often portrayed as lively, persuasive and quick to act, able to warm a room and rally others behind an idea. The element is associated with the heart and with joy, which gives it real generosity of spirit. Its traditional shadow is impatience: Fire can burn hot and fast, leading to restlessness, sharp words in the moment and a tendency to lose interest once the excitement fades.

1936 in numerology and the twelve-year cycle

In numerology the year's digits reduce to 1, the number of beginnings, initiative and independence, so numerologists describe a 1 year as one that rewards starting things. The digits of 1936 add up to 19, which reduces to 1. 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 Fire, and in the five-element cycles water controls Fire. The year before was the Wood Pig and the year after is the Fire Ox.

In the traditional sexagenary count the year is called Bing-Zi: Bing is the Fire 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.