1984 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Rat

Chinese year 1984 begins on Thursday, February 2, 1984, and ends on Tuesday, February 19, 1985, the day before the Year of the Wood Ox begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1987. 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, February 1, 1984 at 6:47 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 2, 7:47 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 2.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Thursday, February 16, 1984. The year's first full moon falls on Thursday, February 16, 1984 at 7:41 p.m. ET.

It is the first year of a sixty-year cycle, since every cycle opens with the Wood Rat. The next cycle begins in 2044. 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 1984 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 Saturday, February 4, 1984 at 10:18 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 2 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between February 2 and that moment already has the Wood Rat sign in the lunar calendar but still the Water 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.

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, 1984 (yang) and 1985 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1974–1975, next in 1994–1995.

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 1984 turn 42 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 1984 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2032, when they turn 48 years old.

The Rat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1984, the Wood Rat, returns every 60 years: in 1924, 1984 and 2044.