What Chinese Zodiac Is 2012? Year of the Water Dragon

2012 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Water Dragon year on January 23, 2012, and the year ran to February 9, 2013. So a birth date of Jan 23, 2012 or later counts as Water Dragon, and so do early 2013 birthdays through Feb 9; births in 2012 before Jan 23 still belong to the Metal 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: 1952 are Water Dragon years too. That Monday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Water Dragon is like

Picture a Dragon that wins through perception rather than force. With Earth shaping Water, those born in this year are described as composed, adaptable and quietly influential, gifted at mediation and long-range planning. Their steadiness reassures others. Readings suggest showing unguarded feelings more often and acting on instinct before perfect certainty arrives. Their influence tends to be felt long before it is noticed, and it is usually used with considerable care.

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.

2012 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 2012 add up to 5. The Dragon holds the fifth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Earth. Set beside the year's Water stem, earth controls Water, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Metal Rabbit and the year after is the Water Snake.

Chinese almanacs name 2012 Ren-Chen, pairing the Water stem Ren 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.