Chinese zodiac
Year of the Pig豬
Generous, sincere and comfortable in itself. The last of the twelve, and the least anxious about it.
- Earthly branch
- Hai
- Hours
- 21:00–23:00
- Fixed element
- Water
- Season
- Early winter
- Direction
- North-northwest
Said to be good at
- generous
- sincere
- enjoys life without guilt
- keeps its word
And warned about
- too trusting
- indulgent
- avoids conflict
- slow to suspect bad intent
The Pig arrived last — in the story it stopped to eat and then fell asleep — and the cycle gives it the final hours of the day, when work is done. This is not read as a failing. In Chinese tradition the pig means prosperity and plenty, and a Pig year is considered fortunate.
The sign is described as sincere in a way the others are not: the Pig does not calculate, does not keep score, and assumes the same of everyone else. The classical texts treat this as genuine good character rather than naivety.
The difficulty attached is exactly that assumption. A sign that does not suspect bad intent is regularly taken advantage of, and the tradition warns the Pig to check what it has been told before acting on it.
The Pig is placed in hospitality, food, philanthropy and any work involving generosity as a professional quality. Traditional readings warn the sign against partnerships where its trust is not matched.
A Pig year closes the cycle and is read as a year of completion and enjoyment — the point where what has been built is used rather than added to, before the Rat opens the next round.
The Pig's triangle is with the Rabbit and the Goat — the harmonious signs. The Pig contributes generosity and an absence of calculation, and the tradition treats it as the most straightforwardly good-natured of the twelve, with the corresponding warning about being taken advantage of.
The character for 'family' or 'home', 家, is a roof with a pig beneath it. That single character carries most of what the sign means in Chinese culture: a household with a pig was a household with security, protein through the winter, and something to slaughter at New Year. Prosperity here is not abstract wealth but a full larder.
Pig years
The same animal returns every twelve years, but with a different element each time — the full pairing repeats only every sixty. The date is when that Chinese year began.
| Year | Element | Began |
|---|---|---|
| 1923 | Water Pig | 1923-02-16 |
| 1935 | Wood Pig | 1935-02-04 |
| 1947 | Fire Pig | 1947-01-22 |
| 1959 | Earth Pig | 1959-02-08 |
| 1971 | Metal Pig | 1971-01-27 |
| 1983 | Water Pig | 1983-02-13 |
| 1995 | Wood Pig | 1995-01-31 |
| 2007 | Fire Pig | 2007-02-18 |
| 2019 | Earth Pig | 2019-02-05 |
| 2031 | Metal Pig | 2031-01-23 |
| 2043 | Water Pig | 2043-02-10 |
Born in January or early February? Check the date in the last column — if your birthday falls before it, your sign is the previous year's.
Your own year is not lucky
This surprises people who expect the opposite. In Chinese belief your běnmìngnián — the return of your own animal, every twelfth year — is considered a year of friction rather than fortune. The traditional explanation is that you come to the attention of Tai Sui, the deity of the year, and being noticed is not an advantage.
The customary protection is to wear red: a belt, socks, underwear, a cord at the wrist — usually given by someone else rather than bought for yourself, which is part of the custom. Red goods sell measurably better in the relevant years, so the belief is held widely enough to show up in retail figures.
For the Pig, the last own year began in 2019 (Earth Pig) and the next is 2031, from 2031-01-23 — a Metal Pig. Anyone born under this sign in one of those years is in their own year for the whole of it, not on their birthday.
The five Pigs
The same animal returns every twelve years, but with a different element each time. The pairing repeats only every sixty — so a Pig born under one element and one born under another are read as different signs, not the same one twice.
- Wood Pig
- the most generous of the five and the least inclined to keep score.
- Fire Pig
- a Pig with drive — the version most likely to build something substantial.
- Earth Pig
- grounded and content. The version the tradition considers the most fortunate.
- Metal Pig
- the firmest Pig, and the one least easily taken advantage of.
- Water Pig
- the Pig's own element — the most sincere, and the most likely to be imposed upon.
Matches and clashes
Traditional compatibility follows the geometry of the cycle rather than personality: signs four apart form a harmonious triangle, and the sign directly opposite — six apart — is the clash.
The other eleven
Written and reviewed by Lunasomnia