1995 Chinese Zodiac Year: Wood Pig (and January Dog Dates)

By Astrolivo editorial team

In the Chinese lunisolar calendar convention, the Wood Pig (Yi-hai) year spans January 31, 1995 through February 18, 1996 (inclusive). Anyone born from January 1, 1995 through January 30, 1995 (inclusive) falls prior to Lunar New Year and belongs to the preceding Dog year.

1995 Birth-Date Lookup Table

Because the lunar year boundary falls at the end of January, match your exact birth date to the inclusive ranges below in the Chinese zodiac reference:

Gregorian Birth Date Range (Inclusive)	Chinese Zodiac Animal	1995 Lunar Year Status
January 1, 1995 – January 30, 1995	Dog	Final days of the 1994 lunar year
January 31, 1995 – February 18, 1996	Pig	Wood Pig (Yi-hai) lunar year

Why the Gregorian Year Alone Is Not Enough

The Gregorian calendar resets on January 1, whereas the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar starts each year on the new moon of the first lunar month. In 1995, Lunar New Year fell on January 31, dividing January births between two zodiac animals.

For a hypothetical example, compare two people born six days apart in January 1995: an individual born on January 25, 1995 was born during the closing days of the Dog year, while someone born on January 31, 1995 was born on Lunar New Year's Day and belongs to the Wood Pig year.

The 1995 Stem and Element Convention (Yi-Hai)

The traditional Chinese calendar names each year by pairing one of ten heavenly stems with one of twelve earthly branches in a 60-year cycle (anchored in modern reference tables by 1984, Jia-zi). Although the Pig branch (hai) appears every 12 years, its associated element shifts with each cycle; the complete Yi-hai Wood Pig name repeats only every 60 years.

For the lunar year starting January 31, 1995, the stem-branch designation is Yi-hai. In traditional five-phase (wu xing) stem correspondence, the second stem Yi maps to Wood (just as Jia did in 1994, since each element spans two consecutive stems), and hai maps to the Pig. This designation is a historical calendar convention rather than a scientific personality classification.

How This Differs from Western Sun Signs and Four Pillars (BaZi)

Western Sun signs: Western tropical astrology assigns signs by the Sun's roughly month-long path along the ecliptic, whereas the Chinese zodiac year sign applies to an entire lunisolar year.
Four Pillars (BaZi): This lookup page uses the civil Lunar New Year date. Classical Four Pillars astrology transitions the year pillar at the solar term Li Chun (start of spring) and evaluates four pillars across the year, month, day, and hour of birth.

Methodology and Sources

Inclusive date boundaries and the Yi-hai year header are sourced from the Hong Kong Observatory Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables for 1995 and 1996, alongside the Observatory's 60-year stem-branch tables. The five-phase correspondence linking the Yi stem to Wood is confirmed in Yoo and Yoon (2019, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017). Context on lunisolar calendar mechanics and the history of the animal cycle is drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich.