Year of the Tiger: Calendar Boundaries, Elements, and Cycle Place
By the Astrolivo editorial team
In the Chinese zodiac, the Tiger is the third of the twelve animals, matched to the third Earthly Branch (Yin). Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, a Year of the Tiger begins on Lunar New Year's Day in January or February and concludes on the day before the next Lunar New Year.
If you were born in a Gregorian year commonly linked to the Tiger—such as 1950, 1974, 1986, 1998, or 2010—you cannot rely on the four-digit year alone. Birth dates in January or February prior to that year's Lunar New Year date belong to the preceding Year of the Ox, while dates at the very start of the following Gregorian year (before the next Lunar New Year) still belong to the Tiger.
Position in the 12-Animal and 60-Year Cycles
In the twelve-animal order documented in historical Chinese calendar traditions, the Tiger (Yin) occupies the third position: it follows the Ox (Chou) and precedes the Rabbit (Mao).
Within the 60-year sexagenary cycle (Ganzhi), the third Earthly Branch (Yin) pairs with the five odd-numbered Heavenly Stems (Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, Ren). As the cycle advances, every 12th year brings another Tiger year paired with the next element in the sequence, repeating the exact same stem-branch combination once every 60 years.
Verified Example Years of the Tiger (Non-Exhaustive)
The table below lists only the verified Tiger years included in our current Hong Kong Observatory reference dataset. This list is non-exhaustive; other Tiger years exist at 12-year intervals outside this verified subset.
| Gregorian Year | Stem-Branch & HKO Header | Element | Start Date (Lunar New Year) | End Date (Last Day of Lunar Year) | Preceding Animal (Before Start Date) | Year Detail Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Geng-yin (year of the Tiger) | Metal | 1950-02-17 | 1951-02-05 | Ox | 1950 Details |
| 1974 | Jia-yin (year of the Tiger) | Wood | 1974-01-23 | 1975-02-10 | Ox | 1974 Details |
| 1986 | Bing-yin (year of the Tiger) | Fire | 1986-02-09 | 1987-01-28 | Ox | 1986 Details |
| 1998 | Wu-yin (year of the Tiger) | Earth | 1998-01-28 | 1999-02-15 | Ox | 1998 Details |
| 2010 | Geng-yin (year of the Tiger) | Metal | 2010-02-14 | 2011-02-02 | Ox | 2010 Details |
How to Check Your Birth Date and Follow a Year Link
To verify whether your birth date falls in one of these Tiger years, match your full date of birth against the Start Date and End Date columns, then select the Year Detail Link (for example, 1974 Details, 1986 Details, or 2010 Details) to view the individual year record.
Here are three hypothetical examples illustrating the boundary rules:
- Hypothetical birth on February 1, 1986: Because the 1986 Bing-yin Tiger year started on February 9, 1986, a birth date of February 1, 1986, falls eight days before Lunar New Year. It belongs to the preceding Yi-chou Wood Ox year (1985 Details, which ended on February 8, 1986).
- Hypothetical birth on January 25, 1974: In 1974, Lunar New Year arrived early on January 23, 1974. A person born on January 25, 1974, was born after the cutoff and therefore belongs to the Jia-yin Wood Tiger year (1974 Details).
- Hypothetical birth on January 20, 2011: The 2010 Geng-yin Metal Tiger year ran from February 14, 2010, through February 2, 2011 (the 2011 Rabbit year began on February 3, 2011). Thus, a birth date of January 20, 2011, falls inside the 2010 Metal Tiger lunar year (2010 Details).
Five-Element Variation Across Tiger Years
Each Tiger year in the table above carries a Heavenly Stem that determines its Five-Element (Five-Phase) designation:
- Metal Tiger (Geng-yin, 1950 and 2010): The stem Geng corresponds to Metal. Because 1950 and 2010 are exactly 60 years apart, the full 60-year sexagenary cycle returns to the same Geng-yin stem-branch pair.
- Wood Tiger (Jia-yin, 1974): The stem Jia corresponds to Wood.
- Fire Tiger (Bing-yin, 1986): The stem Bing corresponds to Fire.
- Earth Tiger (Wu-yin, 1998): The stem Wu corresponds to Earth.
(In the full 60-year cycle, the stem Ren pairs with Yin to form the Water Tiger Ren-yin in years outside this verified dataset.)
Cultural Context and Interpretive Scope
As documented by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the twelve zodiac animals have been linked to the Chinese calendar since the Han dynasty, serving as a chronological system alongside the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Treating a birth-year animal as a blueprint for personal character, lucky charms, or relationship compatibility is a much more recent popular tradition, not an empirical or historical fact.
Please note the scope of this reference page:
- Civil Calendar Lookup vs. Four Pillars (BaZi): Our start and end dates follow the civil Lunar New Year in the Hong Kong Observatory tables. They do not represent the solar term Li Chun used in Four Pillars (BaZi) calculations, nor do they account for month, day, and hour pillars.
- Symbolic Tradition: Astrology and zodiac calendars are cultural and symbolic traditions. They do not scientifically measure personality traits or predict life events.
Sources and Reference Methodology
All calendar boundaries and stem-branch headers (Geng-yin, Jia-yin, Bing-yin, Wu-yin) are verified from the official Hong Kong Observatory Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables (T1950e.txt, T1951e.txt, T1974e.txt, T1975e.txt, T1986e.txt, T1987e.txt, T1998e.txt, T1999e.txt, T2010e.txt, T2011e.txt) and HKO Stems and Branches documentation. Stem-to-element correspondences follow Yoo & Yoon (2019, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017 abstract, used strictly for cultural stem-element nomenclature). Historical and calendrical background is drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum (updated April 17, 2024) and Royal Museums Greenwich.