The exact dates of the 1998 lunar year
The Earth Tiger year ran from January 28, 1998 to February 15, 1999. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap fifth month was inserted: 1998 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1998 new year fell 10 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1997 one, January 28, 1998 against February 7, 1997. Why the 1998 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Earth Tiger pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1998 is Wu and the branch is the Tiger, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1998 that branch is taken to mean someone bold and impatient, better at starting than at waiting. Earth, the element attached to 1998, adds steadiness, patience and an attachment to what is already built.
1998 is a yang year, the outward half of the Earth pair: 1999 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1998 is described as the tiger temperament working through steadiness.
Born in January or early February 1998
From 1 January 1998 to January 27, 1998 the animal in force was still the Ox, not the Tiger — 27 days of 1998 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1998 is a Ox.
The first Tiger of 1998 is anyone born on January 28, 1998 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 15, 1999. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 28, 1998 is at the early end.
Where 1998 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1998 is position 15 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Wu stem against the Tiger branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Earth Tiger year was 1938 and the next is 2058.
Someone born in 1938 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1998, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1998 meets the pairing again in 2058.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Tiger of 1998 is grouped with the Horse and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1994 and 2002. Its opposition is the Monkey, six years on from 1998 in 2004.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1998 was measured to produce them; 1998 stands four years from 1994 and six from 2004, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1998
Because the 1998 lunar year opened on January 28, 1998, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 15, 1999, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1998 stays the Tiger.
Handbooks equate the Tiger of 1998 with Aquarius, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1998 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1998 Earth Tiger as a year-long version of Aquarius flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1998 Chinese new year start?
January 28, 1998, and the year ran on to February 15, 1999 — 384 days.
What animal is 1998?
The Tiger, in its Earth form, from January 28, 1998 onward; a birth earlier in 1998 is a Ox.
Was 1998 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap fifth month made 1998 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1998 — which animal am I?
The Ox, unless you were born on January 28, 1998 or later, which is when the 1998 year began.