What Chinese Zodiac Is 1945? Year of the Wood Rooster

When the 1945 Wood Rooster year starts and ends

The 1945 Wood Rooster year began at Lunar New Year on February 13, 1945 and lasted until February 1, 1946, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Feb 13 1945 therefore belongs to the Wood Monkey year that started in 1944, while someone born in early 1946, up to Feb 1, is still a Wood Rooster. 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 Rooster combination also falls in 2005, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1945 fell on a Tuesday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Wood Rooster personality

A Wood Rooster year is linked with conscientious idealists who want to improve the world around them. The Rooster's Metal carves Wood, so traditional readings describe precision shaping generous growth. Those born then are often honest, hardworking organisers of community efforts. The usual caution is a critical streak and standards that leave little room for ordinary mistakes. Rotas, committees and village fêtes tend to run smoothly in their hands.

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.

1945 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 1945 add up to 19, which reduces to 1. In the twelve-year cycle the Rooster is the tenth animal, earthly branch You, with Metal as its fixed element and Yin polarity. The year element is Wood, and in the five-element cycles metal controls Wood. The year before was the Wood Monkey and the year after is the Fire Dog.

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