2028 Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Monkey

Chinese year 2028 begins on Wednesday, January 26, 2028, and ends on Monday, February 12, 2029, the day before the Year of the Earth Rooster begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 2031. 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 Wednesday, January 26, 2028 at 10:13 a.m. ET, which is 11:13 p.m. China Standard Time, so the date is the same in New York and in Beijing. The annular solar eclipse takes place at this same new moon.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Wednesday, February 9, 2028. The year's first full moon falls on Thursday, February 10, 2028 at 10:04 a.m. ET.

It is year 45 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 戊申 (wùshēn): the heavenly stem 戊 gives the element and the earthly branch 申 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 2028 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 Friday, February 4, 2028 at 2:31 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 9 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 26 and that moment already has the Earth Monkey sign in the lunar calendar but still the Fire Goat sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Monkey is the sign of intelligence and inventiveness. It is brilliant, curious about the world and quick to learn, and it solves problems in unconventional ways.

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, 2028 (yang) and 2029 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 2018–2019, next in 2038–2039.

The Earth Monkey is the calmest and most responsible of its family. Earth channels its cleverness toward practical goals: instead of mischief, there is solid work and care for its loved ones. It is generous and loyal. But it demands a lot of itself and others, and takes criticism worse than it shows.

Chinese year 2028 begins on Wednesday, January 26, 2028. Children born in it celebrate their first běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2040, when they turn 12.

The Monkey comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 2028, the Earth Monkey, returns every 60 years: in 1968, 2028 and 2088.