What Chinese Zodiac Is 2019? Year of the Earth Pig

2019 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Earth Pig year on February 5, 2019, and the year ran to January 24, 2020. So a birth date of Feb 5, 2019 or later counts as Earth Pig, and so do early 2020 birthdays through Jan 24; births in 2019 before Feb 5 still belong to the Earth Dog. 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: 1959 are Earth Pig years too. That Tuesday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Earth Pig is like

A full table and a well-kept house are the traditional emblems of this year. Because Earth controls Water, readings describe a Pig whose generosity is grounded and dependable. Those born now often shine in hospitality and practical care. Accepting help in return, and mindful habits around comfort, keep their contentment from turning into confinement. Family gatherings often revolve around their kitchen and their patient, good-humoured care.

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.

2019 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the digits of this year reduce to 3, associated with expression, creativity and sociability, so a 3 year is described as lively and communicative. The digits of 2019 add up to 12, which reduces to 3. The Pig holds the twelfth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Water. Set beside the year's Earth stem, earth controls Water, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Earth Dog and the year after is the Metal Rat.

Chinese almanacs name 2019 Ji-Hai, pairing the Earth stem Ji with the branch Hai. 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.