What Chinese Zodiac Is 1997? Year of the Fire Ox

1997 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Fire Ox year on February 7, 1997, and the year ran to January 27, 1998. So a birth date of Feb 7, 1997 or later counts as Fire Ox, and so do early 1998 birthdays through Jan 27; births in 1997 before Feb 7 still belong to the Fire 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: 1937 are Fire Ox years too. That Friday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Fire Ox is like

People born in a Fire Ox year are often pictured as tireless leaders with strong convictions. Fire generating Earth is read as warmth fuelling endurance, so this Ox has unusual drive. They tend to defend their views energetically. Readings suggest asking for input before deciding, accepting that others move at different speeds and building regular rest into a busy, purposeful life.

Belonging to the south and to the height of summer, Fire brings brightness, drive and visibility to any sign it colours. Classical texts connect it with enthusiasm, leadership and the urge to be seen and to make an impression. A Fire stem tends to make an animal more expressive, more daring and more openly emotional than its usual reputation suggests. People born in Fire years are often described as inspiring company and natural motivators. The caution most readings attach is a short fuse and a difficulty with slow seasons, when steady effort matters more than spark and the reward is a long way off.

1997 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 1997 add up to 26, which reduces to 8. The Ox holds the second place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Earth. Set beside the year's Fire stem, fire generates Earth, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Fire Rat and the year after is the Earth Tiger.

Chinese almanacs name 1997 Ding-Chou, pairing the Fire stem Ding 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.