The exact dates of the 1983 lunar year
The Water Pig year ran from February 13, 1983 to February 1, 1984. Twelve lunar months came to 354 days in 1983, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1983 new year fell 19 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1982 one, February 13, 1983 against January 25, 1982. Why the 1983 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Water Pig pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1983 is Gui and the branch is the Pig, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1983 that branch is taken to mean someone generous and unguarded, taking people at their word for longer than is wise. Water, the element attached to 1983, adds adaptability, depth and a way of getting around obstacles rather than through.
1983 is a yin year, the inward half of the Water pair: 1982 carries the same element in its yang form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1983 is described as the pig temperament working through adaptability.
Born in January or early February 1983
From 1 January 1983 to February 12, 1983 the animal in force was still the Dog, not the Pig — 43 days of 1983 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1983 is a Dog.
The first Pig of 1983 is anyone born on February 13, 1983 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 1, 1984. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 13, 1983 is at the later end.
Where 1983 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1983 is position 60 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Gui stem against the Pig branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Water Pig year was 1923 and the next is 2043.
Someone born in 1923 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1983, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1983 meets the pairing again in 2043.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Pig of 1983 is grouped with the Rabbit and the Goat, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1979 and 1987. Its opposition is the Snake, six years on from 1983 in 1989.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1983 was measured to produce them; 1983 stands four years from 1979 and six from 1989, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1983
Because the 1983 lunar year opened on February 13, 1983, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 1, 1984, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1983 stays the Pig.
Handbooks equate the Pig of 1983 with Scorpio, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1983 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1983 Water Pig as a year-long version of Scorpio flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1983 Chinese new year start?
February 13, 1983, and the year ran on to February 1, 1984 — 354 days.
What animal is 1983?
The Pig, in its Water form, from February 13, 1983 onward; a birth earlier in 1983 is a Dog.
Was 1983 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1983 ran twelve months and 354 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1983 — which animal am I?
The Dog, unless you were born on February 13, 1983 or later, which is when the 1983 year began.