What Chinese Zodiac Is 1946? Year of the Fire Dog

When the 1946 Fire Dog year starts and ends

The 1946 Fire Dog year began at Lunar New Year on February 2, 1946 and lasted until January 21, 1947, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Feb 2 1946 therefore belongs to the Wood Rooster year that started in 1945, while someone born in early 1947, up to Jan 21, is still a Fire Dog. 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 Dog combination also falls in 2006, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1946 fell on a Saturday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Fire Dog personality

Fire Dog years are associated with energetic, courageous and honest people. Fire warms the Dog's Earth in the generating cycle, so traditional readings describe loyalty burning brightly and conviction spoken aloud. Those born then are often protectors of friends and causes. The usual caution is impulsiveness and harsh judgement when someone falls short of their standards. Few friends are as ready to stand beside them in a storm.

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.

1946 in numerology and the twelve-year cycle

In numerology the year's digits reduce to 2, the number of partnership, patience and diplomacy, and a 2 year is traditionally read as one for cooperation rather than solo pushes. The digits of 1946 add up to 20, which reduces to 2. In the twelve-year cycle the Dog is the eleventh animal, earthly branch Xu, with Earth as its fixed element and Yang polarity. The year element is Fire, and in the five-element cycles fire generates Earth. The year before was the Wood Rooster and the year after is the Fire Pig.

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