1993 Chinese zodiac sign: Water Rooster

Chinese year 1993 begins on Saturday, January 23, 1993, and ends on Wednesday, February 9, 1994, the day before the Year of the Wood Dog begins. It has a full 383 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1995. 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 22, 1993 at 1:27 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already January 23, 2:27 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on January 23.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Saturday, February 6, 1993. The year's first full moon falls on Saturday, February 6, 1993 at 6:55 p.m. ET.

It is year 10 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 癸酉 (guǐyǒu): the heavenly stem 癸 gives the element and the earthly branch 酉 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1993 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 Wednesday, February 3, 1993 at 2:37 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 11 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 23 and that moment already has the Water Rooster sign in the lunar calendar but still the Water Monkey 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.

Intuition, flexibility and a gift for persuasion. Water softens a sign and teaches it to go with the flow.

The Water element covers two years in a row, 1992 (yang) and 1993 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1982–1983, next in 2002–2003.

Water teaches the Rooster tact. The Water Rooster is calmer than its relatives, has good intuition and delivers its remarks more gently, so people are more willing to listen. It is intelligent, organized and helpful. Sometimes, though, it gets lost in the details and loses sight of the goal.

In 2026, people born in 1993 turn 33 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 1993 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2029, when they turn 36 years old.

The Rooster comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1993, the Water Rooster, returns every 60 years: in 1933, 1993 and 2053.