What Chinese Zodiac Is 2016? Year of the Fire Monkey

2016 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Fire Monkey year on February 8, 2016, and the year ran to January 27, 2017. So a birth date of Feb 8, 2016 or later counts as Fire Monkey, and so do early 2017 birthdays through Jan 27; births in 2016 before Feb 8 still belong to the Wood Goat. 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: 1956 are Fire Monkey years too. That Monday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Fire Monkey is like

Sparks fly when Fire meets the Monkey. Because Fire controls Metal, readings describe an inventive, adventurous character with bold humour and considerable nerve. Those born now tend to experiment constantly. Safety margins in their plans, honest friends who are not charmed by them and patience with detail help their ambition stay matched by integrity. Their wit can lift a gloomy meeting in seconds, and they rarely run short of new ideas.

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.

2016 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the year reduces to 9, the number of completion, generosity and letting go, and a 9 year is traditionally read as one of endings that clear space. The digits of 2016 add up to 9. The Monkey holds the ninth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Metal. Set beside the year's Fire stem, fire controls Metal, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Wood Goat and the year after is the Fire Rooster.

Chinese almanacs name 2016 Bing-Shen, pairing the Fire stem Bing with the branch Shen. 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.