1936 Chinese zodiac sign: Fire Rat

Chinese year 1936 begins on Friday, January 24, 1936, and ends on Wednesday, February 10, 1937, the day before the Year of the Fire Ox begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1938. The Chinese calendar adds the extra month roughly every two or three years so that it doesn't drift away from the seasons.

The year opens with the new moon on Friday, January 24, 1936 at 2:18 a.m. ET, which is 3:18 p.m. China Standard Time, so the date is the same in New York and in Beijing.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Friday, February 7, 1936. The year's first full moon falls on Friday, February 7, 1936 at 6:19 a.m. ET.

It is year 13 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 丙子 (bǐngzǐ): the heavenly stem 丙 gives the element and the earthly branch 子 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1936 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 Tuesday, February 4, 1936 at 6:29 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 11 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 24 and that moment already has the Fire Rat sign in the lunar calendar but still the Wood Pig 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.

Passion, courage and a need for action. Fire adds temperament and charisma, along with a tendency to flare up.

The Fire element covers two years in a row, 1936 (yang) and 1937 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1926–1927, next in 1946–1947.

Give the Rat Fire and it stops waiting for opportunities and starts making them. The Fire Rat is enterprising, bold and competitive, and its energy draws people into shared plans. But it has a short fuse: it gets irritated easily, and impatience can spoil something that started well.

In 2026, people born in 1936 turn 90 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 1936 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2032, when they turn 96 years old.

The Rat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1936, the Fire Rat, returns every 60 years: in 1876, 1936 and 1996.