The 12 animals
Year of the Rooster: years, dates and elements
Tenth in the cycle, the Rooster is the sign of the You branch and of the autumn equinox month. Its years and their dates.
Were you born in a year of the Rooster?
Born July 1, 2005
Wood Rooster
| Stem-branch | Yi-You 乙酉, yin |
| Lunar birth date | day 25 of the 5th month, 2005 |
| That lunar year: February 9, 2005 to January 28, 2006 | |
The Rooster is the tenth animal of the zodiac and the sign of You, the tenth earthly branch, a Metal branch on the yin side. The next Rooster year is an Earth Rooster that begins on February 13, 2029 and ends on February 2, 2030. Before it came the Fire Rooster of January 28, 2017 to February 15, 2018 and the Wood Rooster that began on February 9, 2005. All these dates are read in the Gregorian-Lunar conversion tables of the Hong Kong Observatory. The Rooster is the only bird of the twelve, and in folklore it is the herald of the day, whose crow chases away the creatures of the night; it is also a homophone game, since the word for rooster, ji, sounds like the word for good fortune. Portraits of Rooster people as punctual, frank and proud are tradition, not description.
How does tradition pair these two signs?
Rooster and Ox
Triad (san he)
| Rooster triad | Ox, Snake |
| Rooster opposite | Rabbit |
Folk tradition, not a prediction.
Dates read in the HKO tables by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
You: evening and the eighth month
The You branch names the double hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the hour when chickens come home to roost, and the eighth lunar month, which contains the autumnal equinox and the Mid-Autumn Festival on its fifteenth day. On the circle, You stands at the western point, opposite the Rabbit's eastern dawn.
The bird's link with the sun runs through Chinese legend: a golden rooster crows at dawn on a peach tree at the end of the world, and the roosters of the earth answer it. Paper roosters were once pasted on doors at the new year to protect the house.
How does tradition pair these two signs?
Rooster and Ox
Triad (san he)
| Rooster triad | Ox, Snake |
| Rooster opposite | Rabbit |
Folk tradition, not a prediction.
Rooster pairings in tradition
Tradition puts the Rooster in a triad with the Ox and the Snake, pairs it in harmony with the Dragon, and places the Rabbit opposite. The harm pair is the Dog. Matchmakers once read these rules on the year branches of a couple; today they survive as a cultural game, and this site presents them that way.
Early Roosters
Some Rooster years start in January: January 23, 1993 in 1993 and January 28, 2017 in 2017. In those years, even late-January births are Roosters; in 2005, when the year began on February 9, 2005, they are Monkeys.
The Rooster at a glance
| Earthly branch | You 酉, number 10 of 12 |
| Fixed element of the branch | Metal, yin |
| Double hour (shichen) | 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. |
| Lunar month named by the branch | 8th month |
| Triad (san he) | Ox, Snake |
| Harmony pair (liu he) | Dragon |
| Opposite sign (liu chong) | Rabbit |
| Harm pair (liu hai) | Dog |
| Next year of the Rooster | 2029, from February 13, 2029 |
Every year of the Rooster, with exact dates
Each line is one lunar year, from its new year to the eve of the next. Over sixty years the Rooster comes back five times, once with each element: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. A birth before the start date in that Gregorian year belongs to the Monkey.
| Year | Sign | Stem-branch | Starts | Ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 | Water Rooster | Gui-You 癸酉 | Jan 26, 1933 | Feb 13, 1934 |
| 1945 | Wood Rooster | Yi-You 乙酉 | Feb 13, 1945 | Feb 1, 1946 |
| 1957 | Fire Rooster | Ding-You 丁酉 | Jan 31, 1957 | Feb 17, 1958 |
| 1969 | Earth Rooster | Ji-You 己酉 | Feb 17, 1969 | Feb 5, 1970 |
| 1981 | Metal Rooster | Xin-You 辛酉 | Feb 5, 1981 | Jan 24, 1982 |
| 1993 | Water Rooster | Gui-You 癸酉 | Jan 23, 1993 | Feb 9, 1994 |
| 2005 | Wood Rooster | Yi-You 乙酉 | Feb 9, 2005 | Jan 28, 2006 |
| 2017 | Fire Rooster | Ding-You 丁酉 | Jan 28, 2017 | Feb 15, 2018 |
| 2029 | Earth Rooster | Ji-You 己酉 | Feb 13, 2029 | Feb 2, 2030 |
| 2041 | Metal Rooster | Xin-You 辛酉 | Feb 1, 2041 | Jan 21, 2042 |