The exact dates of the 1962 lunar year
The Water Tiger year ran from February 5, 1962 to January 24, 1963. Twelve lunar months came to 354 days in 1962, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1962 new year fell 10 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1961 one, February 5, 1962 against February 15, 1961. Why the 1962 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Water Tiger pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1962 is Ren and the branch is the Tiger, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1962 that branch is taken to mean someone bold and impatient, better at starting than at waiting. Water, the element attached to 1962, adds adaptability, depth and a way of getting around obstacles rather than through.
1962 is a yang year, the outward half of the Water pair: 1963 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1962 is described as the tiger temperament working through adaptability.
Born in January or early February 1962
From 1 January 1962 to February 4, 1962 the animal in force was still the Ox, not the Tiger — 35 days of 1962 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1962 is a Ox.
The first Tiger of 1962 is anyone born on February 5, 1962 or later, and the last one anyone born on January 24, 1963. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 5, 1962 is at the later end.
Where 1962 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1962 is position 39 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Ren stem against the Tiger branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Water Tiger year was 1902 and the next is 2022.
Someone born in 1902 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1962, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1962 meets the pairing again in 2022.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Tiger of 1962 is grouped with the Horse and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1958 and 1966. Its opposition is the Monkey, six years on from 1962 in 1968.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1962 was measured to produce them; 1962 stands four years from 1958 and six from 1968, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1962
Because the 1962 lunar year opened on February 5, 1962, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, January 24, 1963, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1962 stays the Tiger.
Handbooks equate the Tiger of 1962 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 1962 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1962 Water Tiger as a year-long version of Aquarius flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1962 Chinese new year start?
February 5, 1962, and the year ran on to January 24, 1963 — 354 days.
What animal is 1962?
The Tiger, in its Water form, from February 5, 1962 onward; a birth earlier in 1962 is a Ox.
Was 1962 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1962 ran twelve months and 354 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1962 — which animal am I?
The Ox, unless you were born on February 5, 1962 or later, which is when the 1962 year began.