1924 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Rat

Chinese year 1924 begins on Tuesday, February 5, 1924, and ends on Friday, January 23, 1925, the day before the Year of the Wood Ox begins. It has 354 days, or 12 lunar months: each month starts on a new moon, so it is 29 or 30 days long. The next leap year, with a thirteenth month, comes in 1925.

The year opens with the new moon on Monday, February 4, 1924 at 8:38 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 5, 9:24 a.m. Beijing local mean time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 5.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Tuesday, February 19, 1924. The year's first full moon falls on Wednesday, February 20, 1924 at 11:07 a.m. ET. The total lunar eclipse takes place at this same full moon.

It is the first year of a sixty-year cycle, since every cycle opens with the Wood Rat. The next cycle begins in 1984. In Chinese this year is called 甲子 (jiǎzǐ): the heavenly stem 甲 gives the element and the earthly branch 子 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1924 begins not at the lunar New Year but at the moment of lìchūn (立春, “start of spring”), when the Sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude: on Monday, February 4, 1924 at 8:50 p.m. Eastern Time. That is one day before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 4 still has the Water Pig sign in the lunar calendar but already the Wood Rat sign in Ba Zi.

This page and the calculator give your sign by the lunar calendar.

The Rat opens the twelve-year cycle, and legend says it won the Great Race by cunning: it rode across the river on the Ox's back and jumped off just before the finish line. The sign is known for intelligence, resourcefulness and quick reflexes.

Growth, curiosity and cooperation. Wood brings a gardener's patience: it builds slowly, with an eye on what will grow in the years ahead.

The Wood element covers two years in a row, 1924 (yang) and 1925 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1914–1915, next in 1934–1935.

The Wood Rat opens the whole sixty-year cycle of the Chinese calendar. Wood softens the Rat's calculating side and makes it more generous, so it would rather build alliances than fight for its share. It thinks about the future, loves to learn and has a head full of projects, though it doesn't always have the patience to see each one through.

In 2026, people born in 1924 turn 102 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as an opposite sign's year for the Rat. People born in 1924 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2032, when they turn 108 years old.

The Rat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1924, the Wood Rat, returns every 60 years: in 1864, 1924 and 1984.