The exact dates of the 1994 lunar year
The Wood Dog year ran from February 10, 1994 to January 30, 1995. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1994, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1994 new year fell 18 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1993 one, February 10, 1994 against January 23, 1993. Why the 1994 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Wood Dog pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1994 is Jia and the branch is the Dog, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1994 that branch is taken to mean someone loyal and principled, with a low tolerance for anything that looks unfair. Wood, the element attached to 1994, adds growth, flexibility and the willingness to keep extending.
1994 is a yang year, the outward half of the Wood pair: 1995 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1994 is described as the dog temperament working through growth.
Born in January or early February 1994
From 1 January 1994 to February 9, 1994 the animal in force was still the Rooster, not the Dog — 40 days of 1994 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1994 is a Rooster.
The first Dog of 1994 is anyone born on February 10, 1994 or later, and the last one anyone born on January 30, 1995. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 10, 1994 is at the later end.
Where 1994 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1994 is position 11 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Jia stem against the Dog branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Wood Dog year was 1934 and the next is 2054.
Someone born in 1934 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1994, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1994 meets the pairing again in 2054.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Dog of 1994 is grouped with the Tiger and the Horse, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1990 and 1998. Its opposition is the Dragon, six years on from 1994 in 2000.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1994 was measured to produce them; 1994 stands four years from 1990 and six from 2000, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1994
Because the 1994 lunar year opened on February 10, 1994, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, January 30, 1995, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1994 stays the Dog.
Handbooks equate the Dog of 1994 with Libra, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1994 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1994 Wood Dog as a year-long version of Libra flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1994 Chinese new year start?
February 10, 1994, and the year ran on to January 30, 1995 — 355 days.
What animal is 1994?
The Dog, in its Wood form, from February 10, 1994 onward; a birth earlier in 1994 is a Rooster.
Was 1994 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1994 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1994 — which animal am I?
The Rooster, unless you were born on February 10, 1994 or later, which is when the 1994 year began.