The exact dates of the 1993 lunar year
The Water Rooster year ran from January 23, 1993 to February 9, 1994. Those 383 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap third month was inserted: 1993 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1993 new year fell 12 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1992 one, January 23, 1993 against February 4, 1992. Why the 1993 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Water Rooster pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1993 is Gui and the branch is the Rooster, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1993 that branch is taken to mean someone exact and outspoken, noticing detail and reporting it. Water, the element attached to 1993, adds adaptability, depth and a way of getting around obstacles rather than through.
1993 is a yin year, the inward half of the Water pair: 1992 carries the same element in its yang form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1993 is described as the rooster temperament working through adaptability.
Born in January or early February 1993
From 1 January 1993 to January 22, 1993 the animal in force was still the Monkey, not the Rooster — 22 days of 1993 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1993 is a Monkey.
The first Rooster of 1993 is anyone born on January 23, 1993 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 9, 1994. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 23, 1993 is at the early end.
Where 1993 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1993 is position 10 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Gui stem against the Rooster branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Water Rooster year was 1933 and the next is 2053.
Someone born in 1933 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1993, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1993 meets the pairing again in 2053.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Rooster of 1993 is grouped with the Ox and the Snake, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1989 and 1997. Its opposition is the Rabbit, six years on from 1993 in 1999.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1993 was measured to produce them; 1993 stands four years from 1989 and six from 1999, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1993
Because the 1993 lunar year opened on January 23, 1993, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 9, 1994, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1993 stays the Rooster.
Handbooks equate the Rooster of 1993 with Virgo, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1993 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1993 Water Rooster as a year-long version of Virgo flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1993 Chinese new year start?
January 23, 1993, and the year ran on to February 9, 1994 — 383 days.
What animal is 1993?
The Rooster, in its Water form, from January 23, 1993 onward; a birth earlier in 1993 is a Monkey.
Was 1993 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap third month made 1993 thirteen months and 383 days long.
I was born in January 1993 — which animal am I?
The Monkey, unless you were born on January 23, 1993 or later, which is when the 1993 year began.