The exact dates of the 2012 lunar year
The Water Dragon year ran from January 23, 2012 to February 9, 2013. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap fourth month was inserted: 2012 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 2012 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 2011 one, January 23, 2012 against February 3, 2011. Why the 2012 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Water Dragon pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 2012 is Ren and the branch is the Dragon, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 2012 that branch is taken to mean someone conspicuous and self-assured, uncomfortable with any small role. Water, the element attached to 2012, adds adaptability, depth and a way of getting around obstacles rather than through.
2012 is a yang year, the outward half of the Water pair: 2013 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 2012 is described as the dragon temperament working through adaptability.
Born in January or early February 2012
From 1 January 2012 to January 22, 2012 the animal in force was still the Rabbit, not the Dragon — 22 days of 2012 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 2012 is a Rabbit.
The first Dragon of 2012 is anyone born on January 23, 2012 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 9, 2013. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 23, 2012 is at the early end.
Where 2012 sits in the sixty-year cycle
2012 is position 29 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Ren stem against the Dragon branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Water Dragon year was 1952 and the next is 2072.
Someone born in 1952 therefore returned to their own pillar in 2012, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 2012 meets the pairing again in 2072.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Dragon of 2012 is grouped with the Rat and the Monkey, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 2008 and 2016. Its opposition is the Dog, six years on from 2012 in 2018.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 2012 was measured to produce them; 2012 stands four years from 2008 and six from 2018, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 2012
Because the 2012 lunar year opened on January 23, 2012, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 9, 2013, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 2012 stays the Dragon.
Handbooks equate the Dragon of 2012 with Aries, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 2012 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 2012 Water Dragon as a year-long version of Aries flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 2012 Chinese new year start?
January 23, 2012, and the year ran on to February 9, 2013 — 384 days.
What animal is 2012?
The Dragon, in its Water form, from January 23, 2012 onward; a birth earlier in 2012 is a Rabbit.
Was 2012 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap fourth month made 2012 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 2012 — which animal am I?
The Rabbit, unless you were born on January 23, 2012 or later, which is when the 2012 year began.