2024 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Dragon

Chinese year 2024 begins on Saturday, February 10, 2024, and ends on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, the day before the Year of the Wood Snake 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 2025.

The year opens with the new moon on Friday, February 9, 2024 at 5:59 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 10, 6:59 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 10.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Saturday, February 24, 2024. The year's first full moon falls on Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 7:31 a.m. ET.

It is year 41 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 甲辰 (jiǎchén): the heavenly stem 甲 gives the element and the earthly branch 辰 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 2024 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, 2024 at 3:26 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 6 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 9 still has the Water Rabbit sign in the lunar calendar but already the Wood Dragon sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Dragon is the only mythical creature in the Chinese zodiac and a symbol of imperial power, which is why in China a Dragon year is considered the best time to have a baby. The sign carries energy, confidence and big ambitions.

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, 2024 (yang) and 2025 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 2014–2015, next in 2034–2035.

Wood gives the Dragon imagination and openness. The Wood Dragon is creative, curious about the world and glad to share its ideas, and it cooperates better than other Dragons. It cares less about power and more about building something. Details and small tasks bore it quickly, though.

In 2026, people born in 2024 turn 2 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a year with no special tie for the Dragon. People born in 2024 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2036, when they turn 12 years old.

The Dragon comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 2024, the Wood Dragon, returns every 60 years: in 1964, 2024 and 2084.