The exact dates of the 1968 lunar year
The Earth Monkey year ran from January 30, 1968 to February 16, 1969. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap seventh month was inserted: 1968 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1968 new year fell 10 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1967 one, January 30, 1968 against February 9, 1967. Why the 1968 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Earth Monkey pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1968 is Wu and the branch is the Monkey, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1968 that branch is taken to mean someone inventive and quick, solving things sideways and getting bored fast. Earth, the element attached to 1968, adds steadiness, patience and an attachment to what is already built.
1968 is a yang year, the outward half of the Earth pair: 1969 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1968 is described as the monkey temperament working through steadiness.
Born in January or early February 1968
From 1 January 1968 to January 29, 1968 the animal in force was still the Goat, not the Monkey — 29 days of 1968 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1968 is a Goat.
The first Monkey of 1968 is anyone born on January 30, 1968 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 16, 1969. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 30, 1968 is at the early end.
Where 1968 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1968 is position 45 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Wu stem against the Monkey branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Earth Monkey year was 1908 and the next is 2028.
Someone born in 1908 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1968, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1968 meets the pairing again in 2028.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Monkey of 1968 is grouped with the Rat and the Dragon, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1964 and 1972. Its opposition is the Tiger, six years on from 1968 in 1974.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1968 was measured to produce them; 1968 stands four years from 1964 and six from 1974, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1968
Because the 1968 lunar year opened on January 30, 1968, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 16, 1969, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1968 stays the Monkey.
Handbooks equate the Monkey of 1968 with Leo, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1968 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1968 Earth Monkey as a year-long version of Leo flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1968 Chinese new year start?
January 30, 1968, and the year ran on to February 16, 1969 — 384 days.
What animal is 1968?
The Monkey, in its Earth form, from January 30, 1968 onward; a birth earlier in 1968 is a Goat.
Was 1968 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap seventh month made 1968 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1968 — which animal am I?
The Goat, unless you were born on January 30, 1968 or later, which is when the 1968 year began.