1996 Chinese zodiac sign: Fire Rat

Chinese year 1996 begins on Monday, February 19, 1996, and ends on Thursday, February 6, 1997, the day before the Year of the Fire Ox 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 1998.

The year opens with the new moon on Sunday, February 18, 1996 at 6:30 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 19, 7:30 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 19.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Monday, March 4, 1996. The year's first full moon falls on Tuesday, March 5, 1996 at 4:23 a.m. ET.

It is year 13 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 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 1996 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, 1996 at 8:08 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 15 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 18 still has the Wood Pig sign in the lunar calendar but already the Fire Rat 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, 1996 (yang) and 1997 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1986–1987, next in 2006–2007.

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 1996 turn 30 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 1996 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2032, when they turn 36 years old.

The Rat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1996, the Fire Rat, returns every 60 years: in 1936, 1996 and 2056.