The exact dates of the 1938 lunar year
The Earth Tiger year ran from January 31, 1938 to February 18, 1939. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap seventh month was inserted: 1938 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1938 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1937 one, January 31, 1938 against February 11, 1937. Why the 1938 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Earth Tiger pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1938 is Wu and the branch is the Tiger, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1938 that branch is taken to mean someone bold and impatient, better at starting than at waiting. Earth, the element attached to 1938, adds steadiness, patience and an attachment to what is already built.
1938 is a yang year, the outward half of the Earth pair: 1939 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1938 is described as the tiger temperament working through steadiness.
Born in January or early February 1938
From 1 January 1938 to January 30, 1938 the animal in force was still the Ox, not the Tiger — 30 days of 1938 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1938 is a Ox.
The first Tiger of 1938 is anyone born on January 31, 1938 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 18, 1939. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 31, 1938 is at the early end.
Where 1938 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1938 is position 15 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Wu stem against the Tiger branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Earth Tiger year was 1878 and the next is 1998.
Someone born in 1878 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1938, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1938 meets the pairing again in 1998.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Tiger of 1938 is grouped with the Horse and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1934 and 1942. Its opposition is the Monkey, six years on from 1938 in 1944.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1938 was measured to produce them; 1938 stands four years from 1934 and six from 1944, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1938
Because the 1938 lunar year opened on January 31, 1938, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 18, 1939, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1938 stays the Tiger.
Handbooks equate the Tiger of 1938 with Aquarius, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1938 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1938 Earth Tiger as a year-long version of Aquarius flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1938 Chinese new year start?
January 31, 1938, and the year ran on to February 18, 1939 — 384 days.
What animal is 1938?
The Tiger, in its Earth form, from January 31, 1938 onward; a birth earlier in 1938 is a Ox.
Was 1938 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap seventh month made 1938 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1938 — which animal am I?
The Ox, unless you were born on January 31, 1938 or later, which is when the 1938 year began.