The exact dates of the 1984 lunar year
The Wood Rat year ran from February 2, 1984 to February 19, 1985. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap tenth month was inserted: 1984 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1984 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1983 one, February 2, 1984 against February 13, 1983. Why the 1984 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Wood Rat pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1984 is Jia and the branch is the Rat, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1984 that branch is taken to mean someone resourceful and quick to spot an opening, with a strong instinct for what is scarce. Wood, the element attached to 1984, adds growth, flexibility and the willingness to keep extending.
1984 is a yang year, the outward half of the Wood pair: 1985 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1984 is described as the rat temperament working through growth.
Born in January or early February 1984
From 1 January 1984 to February 1, 1984 the animal in force was still the Pig, not the Rat — 32 days of 1984 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1984 is a Pig.
The first Rat of 1984 is anyone born on February 2, 1984 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 19, 1985. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 2, 1984 is at the later end.
Where 1984 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1984 is position 1 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Jia stem against the Rat branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Wood Rat year was 1924 and the next is 2044.
Someone born in 1924 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1984, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1984 meets the pairing again in 2044.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Rat of 1984 is grouped with the Dragon and the Monkey, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1980 and 1988. Its opposition is the Horse, six years on from 1984 in 1990.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1984 was measured to produce them; 1984 stands four years from 1980 and six from 1990, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1984
Because the 1984 lunar year opened on February 2, 1984, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 19, 1985, under Pisces — while the animal for the whole of 1984 stays the Rat.
Handbooks equate the Rat of 1984 with Sagittarius, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1984 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1984 Wood Rat as a year-long version of Sagittarius flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1984 Chinese new year start?
February 2, 1984, and the year ran on to February 19, 1985 — 384 days.
What animal is 1984?
The Rat, in its Wood form, from February 2, 1984 onward; a birth earlier in 1984 is a Pig.
Was 1984 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap tenth month made 1984 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1984 — which animal am I?
The Pig, unless you were born on February 2, 1984 or later, which is when the 1984 year began.