1974 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Tiger

Chinese year 1974 begins on Wednesday, January 23, 1974, and ends on Monday, February 10, 1975, the day before the Year of the Wood Rabbit begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1976. 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 Wednesday, January 23, 1974 at 7:02 a.m. ET, which is 7:02 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 Wednesday, February 6, 1974. The year's first full moon falls on Wednesday, February 6, 1974 at 7:24 p.m. ET.

It is year 51 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 甲寅 (jiǎyín): the heavenly stem 甲 gives the element and the earthly branch 寅 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1974 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, 1974 at 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 12 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 23 and that moment already has the Wood Tiger sign in the lunar calendar but still the Water Ox sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Tiger is the sign of courage and energy. It loves a challenge, has a strong sense of justice and stands up for the underdog, even when it costs it.

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, 1974 (yang) and 1975 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1964–1965, next in 1984–1985.

Wood is the Tiger's fixed element, so the Wood Tiger feels right at home in it. It is creative, open and sociable, and it can give the people around it wings. It has more ideas than time, and what it does least well is finishing what it started with such enthusiasm.

In 2026, people born in 1974 turn 52 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as an ally's year from the same trine for the Tiger. People born in 1974 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2034, when they turn 60 years old.

The Tiger comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1974, the Wood Tiger, returns every 60 years: in 1914, 1974 and 2034.