2005 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Rooster

Chinese year 2005 begins on Wednesday, February 9, 2005, and ends on Saturday, January 28, 2006, 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 2006.

The year opens with the new moon on Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at 5:28 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 9, 6:28 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 9.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Wednesday, February 23, 2005. The year's first full moon falls on Wednesday, February 23, 2005 at 11:54 p.m. ET.

It is year 22 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 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 2005 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 Thursday, February 3, 2005 at 12:43 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 6 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 8 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, 2004 (yang) and 2005 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1994–1995, next in 2014–2015.

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 2005 turn 21 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 2005 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2029, when they turn 24 years old.

The Rooster comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 2005, the Wood Rooster, returns every 60 years: in 1945, 2005 and 2065.