What Chinese Zodiac Is 1984? Year of the Wood Rat

1984 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Wood Rat year on February 2, 1984, and the year ran to February 19, 1985. So a birth date of Feb 2, 1984 or later counts as Wood Rat, and so do early 1985 birthdays through Feb 19; births in 1984 before Feb 2 still belong to the Water Pig. That moving boundary comes from the lunisolar calendar, in which the new year starts with the second new moon after the winter solstice in most years, so its Gregorian date shifts by up to a month from one year to the next. Look sixty years either side and the pairing repeats: 1924 and 2044 are Wood Rat years too. That Thursday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Wood Rat is like

A Wood Rat year marries alert intelligence with an outward, cooperative warmth. In the traditional reading, people born now turn their sharp instincts towards projects that help others grow, and they make lively, encouraging company. Because Water feeds Wood in the generating cycle, their gifts tend to flow outwards readily. The balancing lesson most often mentioned is learning to keep something back for themselves.

In the five-element scheme, Wood belongs to the east and to the green energy of early spring, and that seasonal image shapes how it colours an animal sign. A Wood stem tends to soften sharp edges and add warmth, curiosity and a cooperative instinct. Traditional texts associate it with benevolence, growth and the wish to build something that lasts beyond the self. People born under a Wood stem are often portrayed as principled, open-handed and hopeful about others. The caution usually attached to Wood is a habit of spreading energy thinly, saying yes to every request and feeling quietly hurt when generosity is not returned in kind.

1984 in the animal cycle and in numerology

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 1984 add up to 22. The Rat holds the first place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Water. Set beside the year's Wood stem, water generates Wood, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Water Pig and the year after is the Wood Ox.

Chinese almanacs name 1984 Jia-Zi, pairing the Wood stem Jia with the branch Zi. Both are Yang, as stem and branch always share a polarity, so of the hundred and twenty possible pairings only sixty ever occur, and each one names a single year in every cycle.