What Chinese Zodiac Is 2024? Year of the Wood Dragon

2024 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Wood Dragon year on February 10, 2024, and the year ran to January 28, 2025. So a birth date of Feb 10, 2024 or later counts as Wood Dragon, and so do early 2025 birthdays through Jan 28; births in 2024 before Feb 10 still belong to the Water 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: 1964 are Wood Dragon years too. That Saturday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Wood Dragon is like

Pioneering energy defines the traditional picture of this Dragon year. With Wood controlling Earth, readings describe a visionary character who is cooperative and generous with ideas. Those born now often make inspiring mentors. Inviting critique early, completing projects before launching new ones and valuing quiet satisfaction over applause help that vision last. They often leave behind institutions, projects and protégés that thrive long after they move on.

In the five-element scheme, Wood belongs to the east and to the green energy of early spring, and that seasonal image shapes how it colours an animal sign. A Wood stem tends to soften sharp edges and add warmth, curiosity and a cooperative instinct. Traditional texts associate it with benevolence, growth and the wish to build something that lasts beyond the self. People born under a Wood stem are often portrayed as principled, open-handed and hopeful about others. The caution usually attached to Wood is a habit of spreading energy thinly, saying yes to every request and feeling quietly hurt when generosity is not returned in kind.

2024 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 2024 add up to 8. The Dragon holds the fifth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Earth. Set beside the year's Wood stem, wood controls Earth, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Water Rabbit and the year after is the Wood Snake.

Chinese almanacs name 2024 Jia-Chen, pairing the Wood stem Jia 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.