The exact dates of the 1987 lunar year
The Fire Rabbit year ran from January 29, 1987 to February 16, 1988. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap sixth month was inserted: 1987 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1987 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1986 one, January 29, 1987 against February 9, 1986. Why the 1987 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Fire Rabbit pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1987 is Ding and the branch is the Rabbit, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1987 that branch is taken to mean someone careful and diplomatic, avoiding conflict without conceding the point. Fire, the element attached to 1987, adds visibility, warmth and a tendency to burn through reserves.
1987 is a yin year, the inward half of the Fire pair: 1986 carries the same element in its yang form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1987 is described as the rabbit temperament working through visibility.
Born in January or early February 1987
From 1 January 1987 to January 28, 1987 the animal in force was still the Tiger, not the Rabbit — 28 days of 1987 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1987 is a Tiger.
The first Rabbit of 1987 is anyone born on January 29, 1987 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 16, 1988. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 29, 1987 is at the early end.
Where 1987 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1987 is position 4 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Ding stem against the Rabbit branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Fire Rabbit year was 1927 and the next is 2047.
Someone born in 1927 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1987, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1987 meets the pairing again in 2047.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Rabbit of 1987 is grouped with the Goat and the Pig, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1983 and 1991. Its opposition is the Rooster, six years on from 1987 in 1993.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1987 was measured to produce them; 1987 stands four years from 1983 and six from 1993, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1987
Because the 1987 lunar year opened on January 29, 1987, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 16, 1988, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1987 stays the Rabbit.
Handbooks equate the Rabbit of 1987 with Pisces, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1987 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1987 Fire Rabbit as a year-long version of Pisces flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1987 Chinese new year start?
January 29, 1987, and the year ran on to February 16, 1988 — 384 days.
What animal is 1987?
The Rabbit, in its Fire form, from January 29, 1987 onward; a birth earlier in 1987 is a Tiger.
Was 1987 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap sixth month made 1987 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1987 — which animal am I?
The Tiger, unless you were born on January 29, 1987 or later, which is when the 1987 year began.