2019 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Earth Pig

2019 is the year of the Earth Pig (己亥 Jǐhài), from 5 February 2019 to 24 January 2020. Anyone born in 2019 before 5 February 2019 belongs to the Earth Dog year.

• Animal: Pig
• Element: Earth (Yin)
• Cycle name: 己亥 Jǐhài, year 36 of the 60-year cycle
• Starts: 5 February 2019
• Ends: 24 January 2020

The Earth Pig

Earth years are traditionally linked with steadiness, practicality and care: the element that holds things together and keeps promises. The Pig closes the cycle, and tradition sees it as the zodiac's most generous sign. Pig people are described as sincere, easy-going and diligent, good company at a table and hard workers when it counts.

Born in January or February 2019?

Anyone born from 1 January to 4 February 2019 belongs to the Earth Dog year of 2018. From 5 February 2019 the Earth Pig year begins.

How the dates are worked out

Each Chinese New Year here is worked out from the sky, not copied from a list. A lunar month starts on the day of a New Moon in China Standard Time (UTC+8, or Beijing local time before 1929). The month holding the December solstice is the 11th month. When 13 New Moons fall between two of those months, the first month with no principal solar term (the Sun reaching a multiple of 30 degrees) is a leap month. New Year is the first day of the 1st month, which is why it moves between 21 January and 20 February. New Moons and solar terms follow Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms. The rules follow the Chinese calendar.

2018: Earth Dog · 2020: Metal Rat · All Pig years · All 12 animals