What Chinese Zodiac Is 1957? Year of the Fire Rooster

When the 1957 Fire Rooster year starts and ends

The 1957 Fire Rooster year began at Lunar New Year on January 31, 1957 and lasted until February 17, 1958, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Jan 31 1957 therefore belongs to the Fire Monkey year that started in 1956, while someone born in early 1958, up to Feb 17, is still a Fire 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 Fire Rooster combination also falls in 2017, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1957 fell on a Thursday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Fire Rooster personality

Confident, organised and openly ambitious, the Fire Rooster likes to set the pace and be recognised for excellence. Fire tests the Rooster's Metal, which tradition reads as tempering resolve in heat. People born in this year often lead with flair and loyalty. Bluntness and a quick temper are the usual watch-points; private, balanced feedback lands far better. Their energy often sets the tone for a whole team.

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.

1957 in numerology and the twelve-year cycle

In numerology the year's digits add up to 22, the master builder's number, kept whole and associated with large, practical plans. The digits of 1957 add up to 22. 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 Fire, and in the five-element cycles fire controls Metal. The year before was the Fire Monkey and the year after is the Earth Dog.

In the traditional sexagenary count the year is called Ding-You: Ding is the Fire 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.