The exact dates of the 1964 lunar year
The Wood Dragon year ran from February 13, 1964 to February 1, 1965. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1964, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1964 new year fell 19 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1963 one, February 13, 1964 against January 25, 1963. Why the 1964 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Wood Dragon pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1964 is Jia and the branch is the Dragon, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1964 that branch is taken to mean someone conspicuous and self-assured, uncomfortable with any small role. Wood, the element attached to 1964, adds growth, flexibility and the willingness to keep extending.
1964 is a yang year, the outward half of the Wood pair: 1965 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1964 is described as the dragon temperament working through growth.
Born in January or early February 1964
From 1 January 1964 to February 12, 1964 the animal in force was still the Rabbit, not the Dragon — 43 days of 1964 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1964 is a Rabbit.
The first Dragon of 1964 is anyone born on February 13, 1964 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 1, 1965. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 13, 1964 is at the later end.
Where 1964 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1964 is position 41 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Jia stem against the Dragon branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Wood Dragon year was 1904 and the next is 2024.
Someone born in 1904 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1964, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1964 meets the pairing again in 2024.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Dragon of 1964 is grouped with the Rat and the Monkey, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1960 and 1968. Its opposition is the Dog, six years on from 1964 in 1970.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1964 was measured to produce them; 1964 stands four years from 1960 and six from 1970, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1964
Because the 1964 lunar year opened on February 13, 1964, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 1, 1965, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1964 stays the Dragon.
Handbooks equate the Dragon of 1964 with Aries, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1964 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1964 Wood Dragon as a year-long version of Aries flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1964 Chinese new year start?
February 13, 1964, and the year ran on to February 1, 1965 — 355 days.
What animal is 1964?
The Dragon, in its Wood form, from February 13, 1964 onward; a birth earlier in 1964 is a Rabbit.
Was 1964 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1964 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1964 — which animal am I?
The Rabbit, unless you were born on February 13, 1964 or later, which is when the 1964 year began.