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

By Astrolivo editorial team

In the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the Rooster is the tenth animal in the twelve-year cycle, corresponding to the Earthly Branch You (酉) between the Monkey and the Dog. Because the calendar follows new moon cycles tied to the solar year, a Year of the Rooster begins on Lunar New Year—which falls between late January and mid-February—and concludes on the day before the next Lunar New Year.

Within the verified Hong Kong Observatory calendar rows presented on this page, the Year of the Rooster includes 1981 (February 5, 1981 to January 24, 1982), 1993 (January 23, 1993 to February 9, 1994), 2005 (February 9, 2005 to January 28, 2006), and 2017 (January 28, 2017 to February 15, 2018). These four entries represent verified example years from our source tables rather than a complete list of all Rooster years.

Verified Example Rooster Years and Exact Date Boundaries

The table below includes only the Rooster years verified in our Hong Kong Observatory dataset. It is non-exhaustive: because the zodiac repeats every twelve years, Rooster years also occur before 1981 and after 2017.

How to Determine Whether Your Birth Date Falls in a Listed Rooster Year

A Gregorian birth year alone does not settle your Chinese zodiac animal if you were born in January or February. To verify a birth date against the table above, check where the exact month and day fall relative to Lunar New Year:

1. Dates in January or February before Lunar New Year: If a birth date falls before the Start Date listed for that Gregorian year, it belongs to the preceding Year of the Monkey. For example, consider a hypothetical person born on February 1, 2005. Because the 2005 Yi-you Wood Rooster year started on February 9, 2005, a birth date on February 1, 2005 still falls inside the 2004 Jia-shen Wood Monkey year (which ran from January 22, 2004 through February 8, 2005).
2. Dates from Lunar New Year through December 31: If a hypothetical person is born on February 9, 2005 (or any date through the end of 2005), the date falls on or after Lunar New Year and belongs to the Yi-you Wood Rooster year.
3. Dates in early January or February of the next Gregorian year: A lunar year continues into the opening weeks of the following Gregorian year until the next Lunar New Year arrives. For example, in a hypothetical case where someone is born on February 10, 2018, that date precedes the 2018 Dog Lunar New Year (February 16, 2018). Because the 2017 Ding-you Fire Rooster year ran from January 28, 2017 through February 15, 2018, a birthday on February 10, 2018 belongs to the Year of the Rooster.

For a focused breakdown of an individual year's calendar header and boundary dates, select the year detail link in the table—1981, 1993, 2005, or 2017—or visit the main Chinese zodiac guide.

The Rooster in the 12-Year Animal Sequence and 60-Year Stem-Branch Cycle

In the twelve-animal order documented in museum and astronomical references (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep/Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig), the Rooster holds the tenth position:

• 9th position: Monkey (Shen)
• 10th position: Rooster (You)
• 11th position: Dog (Xu)

While the twelve Earthly Branches repeat every twelve years, the traditional Chinese calendar pairs each branch with one of the ten Heavenly Stems (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) to produce a sixty-year sexagenary cycle starting with Jia-Zi (such as the cycle beginning February 2, 1984).

Because You is an even-numbered branch (the tenth of twelve), it pairs exclusively with the five even-numbered Heavenly Stems (Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin, Gui). Each stem pair corresponds to one of the five phases (Wu Xing): Jia/Yi map to Wood, Bing/Ding to Fire, Wu/Ji to Earth, Geng/Xin to Metal, and Ren/Gui to Water. As a result, consecutive Rooster years shift through the five elements in a regular order:

• 1981 (Xin-you): The stem Xin maps to Metal, making 1981 a Metal Rooster year.
• 1993 (Gui-you): Twelve years later, the tenth stem Gui maps to Water, making 1993 a Water Rooster year.
• 2005 (Yi-you): Cycling back to the second stem Yi, which maps to Wood, 2005 is a Wood Rooster year.
• 2017 (Ding-you): Advancing to the fourth stem Ding, which maps to Fire, 2017 is a Fire Rooster year.

In the full sixty-year cycle, the sixth stem Ji (Earth) also pairs with You to form an Earth Rooster year (Ji-you, such as 1969, the year immediately preceding the 1970 Dog year), even though an Earth Rooster row is not part of the verified table excerpt above.

Cultural Context and Interpretive Boundaries

Historical scholarship summarized by the Victoria and Albert Museum traces twelve-animal cycle imagery back to Han-period documents and Tang-dynasty ceramic figures, distinguishing the long-standing calendar naming convention from more recent popular traditions that interpret birth-year animals as personality archetypes. Likewise, the well-known story of a great race among the twelve animals is recognized as folklore rather than historical record.

When reading Chinese zodiac references, several structural distinctions apply:

1. Civil Lunar New Year vs. Four Pillars (BaZi): The boundary dates on this page follow the civil lunar calendar published by the Hong Kong Observatory, where each animal year begins on Lunar New Year's Day. In traditional Four Pillars (BaZi) practice—which evaluates pillars for the birth year, month, day, and hour—the annual boundary is commonly set at Li Chun (the solar term marking the start of spring) rather than Lunar New Year. Looking up a year animal in a civil conversion table is not a Four Pillars calculation.
2. Lunisolar Year Naming vs. Tropical Sun Signs: The Chinese zodiac labels full lunisolar years (and, in BaZi, solar-term intervals), whereas Western astrology computes planetary longitudes along the tropical zodiac from an exact birth timestamp and birthplace.
3. No Personality Diagnosis or Event Prediction: Calendar stems, branches, and elements are cultural and symbolic classifications. They do not measure human psychology, guarantee life events, determine relationship compatibility scores, or provide medical, legal, or financial guidance. This page provides verified calendar boundaries and stem-element nomenclature without invented personality profiles or luck forecasts.

Methodology and Sources

All listed Rooster start dates, end dates, and stem-branch headers (Xin-you, Gui-you, Yi-you, and Ding-you) are sourced from the official Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables (T1981e.txt through T1982e.txt, T1993e.txt through T1994e.txt, T2005e.txt through T2006e.txt, and T2017e.txt through T2018e.txt) and HKO's Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches reference anchored on the 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 claims. 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 early February 1981, am I a Rooster or a Monkey?

Check whether your birth date falls before or on February 5, 1981, which was Lunar New Year in the Hong Kong Observatory civil calendar. Birth dates from January 1, 1981 through February 4, 1981 belong to the 1980 Metal Monkey year (Geng-shen). Birth dates from February 5, 1981 through January 24, 1982 belong to the 1981 Metal Rooster year (Xin-you).

Why does the 2017 Year of the Rooster extend into February 2018?

A Chinese lunisolar year runs from one Lunar New Year to the eve of the next. Because the 2018 Year of the Dog (Wu-xu) began on February 16, 2018, the 2017 Fire Rooster year (Ding-you) remained in effect from January 28, 2017 through February 15, 2018.

Are 1981, 1993, 2005, and 2017 the only Rooster years?

No. Those four years are the verified example rows included in our source dataset. Rooster years repeat every twelve years across the calendar cycle both before 1981 and after 2017.

Which animals come right before and after the Rooster?

The ninth animal immediately before the Rooster is the Monkey, and the eleventh animal immediately following the Rooster is the Dog. For the full twelve-branch sequence, see the Chinese zodiac hub.