Year of the Pig in the Chinese Zodiac: Verified Dates, Elements, and Cycle

By Astrolivo editorial team

In the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the Pig is the twelfth and final animal of the twelve-year zodiac sequence, corresponding to the Earthly Branch Hai (亥). It follows the Dog and precedes the Rat, which restarts the twelve-branch cycle. Because the Chinese calendar aligns lunar months with the solar year, a Year of the Pig does not begin on January 1; it starts on Lunar New Year in late January or February and runs through the eve of the next Lunar New Year.

In the verified Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables covered on this page, the Year of the Pig includes 1947 (January 22, 1947 to February 9, 1948), 1983 (February 13, 1983 to February 1, 1984), 1995 (January 31, 1995 to February 18, 1996), and 2007 (February 18, 2007 to February 6, 2008). These four years are verified examples from our source dataset rather than a complete list of every Pig year.

Verified Example Pig Years and Exact Date Boundaries

The table below lists only the Pig years verified in our Hong Kong Observatory dataset. It is non-exhaustive: because the twelve-year cycle repeats continuously, other Pig years exist between 1947 and 1983, before 1947, and after 2007.

How to Check January and February Birth Dates

Because Lunar New Year shifts between January 21 and February 20, checking only the four-digit Gregorian year can misclassify birthdays in January or February. Compare your full birth date (year, month, and day) against the Start Date and End Date columns:

1. Born in January or February before Lunar New Year: If a birth date falls between January 1 and the day before that year's Lunar New Year, it belongs to the preceding Year of the Dog. For example, consider a hypothetical person born on February 10, 2007. Because the 2007 Ding-hai Fire Pig year did not start until February 18, 2007, a birth date on February 10, 2007 falls inside the 2006 Bing-xu Fire Dog year (which ran from January 29, 2006 through February 17, 2007).
2. Born on or after Lunar New Year through December 31: If a hypothetical birth date is February 18, 2007, it falls on Lunar New Year's Day and belongs to the Ding-hai Fire Pig year.
3. Born in January or February of the following Gregorian year: Each Pig year extends into the opening weeks of the next Gregorian year until the Rat Lunar New Year begins. For instance, if a hypothetical person is born on January 25, 1984, that date precedes the 1984 Jia-zi Wood Rat Lunar New Year (February 2, 1984). Because the 1983 Gui-hai Water Pig year ran from February 13, 1983 through February 1, 1984, a birthday on January 25, 1984 belongs to the Year of the Pig.

To inspect an individual year's conversion header and boundary dates, follow the year detail link in the table—1947, 1983, 1995, or 2007—or return to the Chinese zodiac overview.

Where the Pig Fits in the 12-Year and 60-Year Cycles

In the standard twelve-animal order (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep/Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig), the Pig occupies the twelfth position, closing the twelve-branch loop:

• 11th position: Dog (Xu)
• 12th position: Pig (Hai)
• 1st position (next cycle): Rat (Zi)

In the sixty-year sexagenary cycle, the ten Heavenly Stems (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) pair with the twelve Earthly Branches in a sequence of sixty combinations starting with Jia-Zi (the Wood Rat year) and ending with Gui-Hai (the Water Pig year).

Our verified table illustrates two structural features of this sixty-year calendar system:

1. Closing the 60-year cycle (Gui-hai, 1983): Because Gui is the tenth Heavenly Stem and Hai is the twelfth Earthly Branch, Gui-hai is the 60th and final year of a sexagenary cycle. In the table above, the 1983 Gui-hai Water Pig year ends on February 1, 1984, and on February 2, 1984 the calendar starts a new sixty-year cycle with Jia-zi (the 1984 Wood Rat year).
2. The 60-year stem-branch return (Ding-hai, 1947 and 2007): Because Hai is an even-numbered branch, it pairs with the five even-numbered stems (Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin, Gui). Under the five-element (Wu Xing) mapping—Jia/Yi Wood, Bing/Ding Fire, Wu/Ji Earth, Geng/Xin Metal, and Ren/Gui Water—both 1947 and 2007 pair Ding (Fire) with Hai (Pig), repeating the exact Ding-hai Fire Pig designation sixty years apart. Meanwhile, 1983 (Gui-hai) pairs Gui (Water) with Hai for a Water Pig year, and 1995 (Yi-hai) pairs Yi (Wood) with Hai for a Wood Pig year.

In the complete sixty-year cycle, the even stems Ji (Earth) and Xin (Metal) also pair with Hai to form Earth Pig (Ji-hai) and Metal Pig (Xin-hai, such as the 1971 Pig year noted as the preceding animal for the 1972 Rat year), though those years are outside the verified table rows on this page.

Cultural Context and Interpretive Limits

Museum and historical scholarship from the Victoria and Albert Museum documents that twelve-animal cycle representations appear in Han-period records and Tang-dynasty funerary figures. This historical calendar-naming tradition is distinct from later popular practices that use birth-year animals for personality descriptions, and the well-known story of a race determining the order of the twelve animals—with the Pig arriving twelfth—is folklore rather than historical fact.

When using this reference guide, keep three interpretive distinctions in mind:

1. Civil Lunar New Year vs. Four Pillars (BaZi): The dates on this page follow the civil Gregorian-lunar conversion tables of the Hong Kong Observatory, where the year animal changes on Lunar New Year. Traditional Four Pillars (BaZi) calculations—which evaluate pillars for the birth year, month, day, and hour—typically switch the annual pillar at the solar term Li Chun (Start of Spring) rather than Lunar New Year. A civil Lunar New Year lookup is not a Four Pillars chart calculation.
2. Lunisolar Year Naming vs. Tropical Sun Signs: The Chinese zodiac tracks lunisolar years and sexagenary stem-branch cycles, whereas Western astrology calculates planetary longitudes along the tropical ecliptic from an exact birth date, time, and geographic location.
3. Symbolic Tradition, Not Scientific Measurement: Astrological and calendar traditions are symbolic frameworks, not scientifically validated instruments for measuring character or predicting life events. This reference page provides verified calendar boundaries and stem-element designations; it does not make claims about personality traits, lucky numbers, relationship compatibility scores, or medical, legal, or financial outcomes.

Methodology and Sources

Gregorian start and end dates, stem-branch headers (Ding-hai, Gui-hai, and Yi-hai), and animal designations for 1947, 1983, 1995, and 2007 are sourced from the official Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables (T1947e.txt through T1948e.txt, T1983e.txt through T1984e.txt, T1995e.txt through T1996e.txt, and T2007e.txt through T2008e.txt), cross-referenced with HKO's Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches documentation anchored on the February 2, 1984 Jia-Zi Rat year. Five-element mappings for the stems follow the cultural correspondence verified in Yoo and Yoon (2019, Journal of Korean Medical Classics, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017, abstract), applied strictly to calendar naming without health or personality inferences. Historical and calendar context relies on the Victoria and Albert Museum (The Lunar Zodiac, updated April 17, 2024) and Royal Museums Greenwich.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I was born in January 1984, why is my zodiac animal the Pig instead of the Rat?

In the Hong Kong Observatory civil lunar calendar, the 1984 Jia-zi Wood Rat year began on February 2, 1984. Any birth date from January 1, 1984 through February 1, 1984 falls before Lunar New Year and belongs to the 1983 Gui-hai Water Pig year, which started on February 13, 1983.

Why do 1947 and 2007 share the exact same stem-branch name, Ding-hai (Fire Pig)?

The ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches combine to form a 60-year cycle. Because 2007 is 60 years after 1947, the stem Ding (Fire) and the branch Hai (Pig) align again as Ding-hai, even though the Gregorian Lunar New Year dates are different (January 22, 1947 vs. February 18, 2007).

Are 1947, 1983, 1995, and 2007 the only Pig years?

No. Those four years are the verified example rows included in our current Hong Kong Observatory dataset. Because the twelve Earthly Branches repeat every twelve years, Pig years also occur in other twelve-year intervals (such as 1959, 1971, and 2019).

Which animals come right before and after the Pig?

The eleventh animal immediately before the Pig is the Dog. Because the Pig is the twelfth and final animal of the cycle, the animal immediately following a Pig year is the first animal of the next twelve-year cycle, the Rat. You can explore all twelve branches on the Chinese zodiac hub.