What Chinese Zodiac Is 1985? Year of the Wood Ox

1985 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Wood Ox year on February 20, 1985, and the year ran to February 8, 1986. So a birth date of Feb 20, 1985 or later counts as Wood Ox, and so do early 1986 birthdays through Feb 8; births in 1985 before Feb 20 still belong to the Wood Rat. 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: 1925 are Wood Ox years too. That Wednesday new year arrived with the Sun in Pisces in the Western zodiac.

What the Wood Ox is like

Those born in a Wood Ox year are said to combine the Ox's endurance with a cooperative, forward-looking outlook. Tradition sees Wood stirring the Ox's settled ground, which tends to make this version friendlier to new ideas and team effort. Their reliability earns trust early in life. The tension readings often name is between staying loyal to routine and following an urge to grow.

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.

1985 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the year reduces to 5, the number of change, freedom and movement, and a 5 year is usually described as restless and full of variety. The digits of 1985 add up to 23, which reduces to 5. The Ox holds the second place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Earth. Set beside the year's Wood stem, wood controls Earth, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Wood Rat and the year after is the Fire Tiger.

Chinese almanacs name 1985 Yi-Chou, pairing the Wood stem Yi with the branch Chou. Both are Yin, 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.