The exact dates of the 1995 lunar year
The Wood Pig year ran from January 31, 1995 to February 18, 1996. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap eighth month was inserted: 1995 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1995 new year fell 10 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1994 one, January 31, 1995 against February 10, 1994. Why the 1995 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Wood Pig pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1995 is Yi and the branch is the Pig, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1995 that branch is taken to mean someone generous and unguarded, taking people at their word for longer than is wise. Wood, the element attached to 1995, adds growth, flexibility and the willingness to keep extending.
1995 is a yin year, the inward half of the Wood pair: 1994 carries the same element in its yang form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1995 is described as the pig temperament working through growth.
Born in January or early February 1995
From 1 January 1995 to January 30, 1995 the animal in force was still the Dog, not the Pig — 30 days of 1995 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1995 is a Dog.
The first Pig of 1995 is anyone born on January 31, 1995 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 18, 1996. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 31, 1995 is at the early end.
Where 1995 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1995 is position 12 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Yi stem against the Pig branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Wood Pig year was 1935 and the next is 2055.
Someone born in 1935 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1995, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1995 meets the pairing again in 2055.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Pig of 1995 is grouped with the Rabbit and the Goat, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1991 and 1999. Its opposition is the Snake, six years on from 1995 in 2001.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1995 was measured to produce them; 1995 stands four years from 1991 and six from 2001, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1995
Because the 1995 lunar year opened on January 31, 1995, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 18, 1996, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1995 stays the Pig.
Handbooks equate the Pig of 1995 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 1995 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1995 Wood Pig as a year-long version of Scorpio flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1995 Chinese new year start?
January 31, 1995, and the year ran on to February 18, 1996 — 384 days.
What animal is 1995?
The Pig, in its Wood form, from January 31, 1995 onward; a birth earlier in 1995 is a Dog.
Was 1995 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap eighth month made 1995 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1995 — which animal am I?
The Dog, unless you were born on January 31, 1995 or later, which is when the 1995 year began.