What Chinese Zodiac Is 1988? Year of the Earth Dragon

1988 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Earth Dragon year on February 17, 1988, and the year ran to February 5, 1989. So a birth date of Feb 17, 1988 or later counts as Earth Dragon, and so do early 1989 birthdays through Feb 5; births in 1988 before Feb 17 still belong to the Fire Rabbit. 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: 1928 are Earth Dragon years too. That Wednesday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Earth Dragon is like

With Earth on Earth, a Dragon born in this year is said to be steady rather than showy, practical rather than impulsive. Classical descriptions emphasise loyalty, sound judgement and the patience to build institutions and families that last. Their ambition is real but measured. The most common growth theme is openness: welcoming dissent and new information before certainty sets too firmly.

In classical thought, Earth belongs to the centre and to the late-summer pause between seasons, the point where things ripen and settle. As a year stem, it tends to slow an animal down in a useful way, adding prudence, loyalty and a strong sense of responsibility. People born under an Earth stem are often described as dependable, sensible and protective of the people they love. They value security and tend to build carefully. The caution traditionally attached to Earth is caution itself: overthinking, clinging to the familiar and carrying other people's problems as though they were their own.

1988 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the digits reduce to 8, associated with ambition, authority and material results, so an 8 year is described in terms of effort and reward. The digits of 1988 add up to 26, which reduces to 8. The Dragon holds the fifth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Earth. Set beside the year's Earth stem, earth year element matches the fixed element, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Fire Rabbit and the year after is the Earth Snake.

Chinese almanacs name 1988 Wu-Chen, pairing the Earth stem Wu with the branch Chen. 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.