What Chinese Zodiac Is 1993? Year of the Water Rooster

1993 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Water Rooster year on January 23, 1993, and the year ran to February 9, 1994. So a birth date of Jan 23, 1993 or later counts as Water Rooster, and so do early 1994 birthdays through Feb 9; births in 1993 before Jan 23 still belong to the Water Monkey. 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: 1933 are Water Rooster years too. That Saturday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Water Rooster is like

Those born in a Water Rooster year are often pictured as thoughtful communicators whose honesty comes with a gentler touch than most Roosters. Metal generating Water is read as precision flowing into perception. They notice details in people as well as in work. Their growth, in traditional terms, lies in acting before every question is answered and sharing hurt rather than hiding it.

In classical thought, Water belongs to the north and to the deep, resting energy of winter, the season when life gathers strength out of sight. As a year stem, it tends to make an animal more reflective, adaptable and emotionally attuned. People born under a Water stem are often described as clever negotiators, sensitive friends and natural mediators who prefer influence to force. They value understanding and tend to think before they act. The caution traditionally attached to Water is fluidity taken too far: avoiding conflict, keeping too much hidden and losing a clear sense of their own direction.

1993 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 1993 add up to 22. The Rooster holds the tenth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Metal. Set beside the year's Water stem, metal generates Water, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Water Monkey and the year after is the Wood Dog.

Chinese almanacs name 1993 Gui-You, pairing the Water stem Gui with the branch You. 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.