2019 Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Pig

Chinese year 2019 begins on Tuesday, February 5, 2019, and ends on Friday, January 24, 2020, the day before the Year of the Metal Rat 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 2020.

The year opens with the new moon on Monday, February 4, 2019 at 4:04 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 5, 5:04 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 5.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Tuesday, February 19, 2019. The year's first full moon falls on Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 10:54 a.m. ET.

It is year 36 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 己亥 (jǐhài): the heavenly stem 己 gives the element and the earthly branch 亥 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 2019 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 3, 2019 at 10:14 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 2 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 4 still has the Earth Dog sign in the lunar calendar but already the Earth Pig sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Pig, called the Boar in some sources, closes the twelve-year cycle. It is the sign of kindness, sincerity and joy in life.

Stability, common sense and care for the people close to you. Earth steadies every sign and makes it more realistic.

The Earth element covers two years in a row, 2018 (yang) and 2019 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 2008–2009, next in 2028–2029.

The Earth Pig patiently builds security. Earth adds good sense and diligence, so step by step it creates a stable life for itself and its loved ones. It is sincere and caring. It gets too attached to comfort, though, and is reluctant to give up what it knows well.

In 2026, people born in 2019 turn 7 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a year with no special tie for the Pig. People born in 2019 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2031, when they turn 12 years old.

The Pig comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 2019, the Earth Pig, returns every 60 years: in 1959, 2019 and 2079.