1945 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Rooster

Chinese year 1945 begins on Tuesday, February 13, 1945, and ends on Friday, February 1, 1946, the day before the Year of the Fire Dog 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 1947.

The year opens with the new moon on Monday, February 12, 1945 at 1:33 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 13, 1:33 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 13.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Tuesday, February 27, 1945. The year's first full moon falls on Monday, February 26, 1945 at 8:07 p.m. ET.

It is year 22 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 乙酉 (yǐyǒu): the heavenly stem 乙 gives the element and the earthly branch 酉 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1945 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 Sunday, February 4, 1945 at 12:19 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 9 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 12 still has the Wood Monkey sign in the lunar calendar but already the Wood Rooster sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Rooster is the sign of hard work and honesty. It is observant, organized and precise, and bold in voicing its opinions.

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, 1944 (yang) and 1945 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1934–1935, next in 1954–1955.

The Wood Rooster is the most open of all the Roosters. Wood softens its critical side and teaches it to cooperate, so it works well on a team and accepts other people's ideas more easily. It is honest, dependable and thinks of others. It does tend to take on more commitments than it can handle.

In 2026, people born in 1945 turn 81 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a year with no special tie for the Rooster. People born in 1945 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2029, when they turn 84 years old.

The Rooster comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1945, the Wood Rooster, returns every 60 years: in 1885, 1945 and 2005.