The exact dates of the 2028 lunar year
The Earth Monkey year ran from January 26, 2028 to February 12, 2029. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap fifth month was inserted: 2028 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 2028 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 2027 one, January 26, 2028 against February 6, 2027. Why the 2028 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Earth Monkey pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 2028 is Wu and the branch is the Monkey, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 2028 that branch is taken to mean someone inventive and quick, solving things sideways and getting bored fast. Earth, the element attached to 2028, adds steadiness, patience and an attachment to what is already built.
2028 is a yang year, the outward half of the Earth pair: 2029 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 2028 is described as the monkey temperament working through steadiness.
Born in January or early February 2028
From 1 January 2028 to January 25, 2028 the animal in force was still the Goat, not the Monkey — 25 days of 2028 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 2028 is a Goat.
The first Monkey of 2028 is anyone born on January 26, 2028 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 12, 2029. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 26, 2028 is at the early end.
Where 2028 sits in the sixty-year cycle
2028 is position 45 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Wu stem against the Monkey branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Earth Monkey year was 1968 and the next is 2088.
Someone born in 1968 therefore returned to their own pillar in 2028, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 2028 meets the pairing again in 2088.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Monkey of 2028 is grouped with the Rat and the Dragon, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 2024 and 2032. Its opposition is the Tiger, six years on from 2028 in 2034.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 2028 was measured to produce them; 2028 stands four years from 2024 and six from 2034, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 2028
Because the 2028 lunar year opened on January 26, 2028, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 12, 2029, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 2028 stays the Monkey.
Handbooks equate the Monkey of 2028 with Leo, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 2028 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 2028 Earth Monkey as a year-long version of Leo flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 2028 Chinese new year start?
January 26, 2028, and the year ran on to February 12, 2029 — 384 days.
What animal is 2028?
The Monkey, in its Earth form, from January 26, 2028 onward; a birth earlier in 2028 is a Goat.
Was 2028 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap fifth month made 2028 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 2028 — which animal am I?
The Goat, unless you were born on January 26, 2028 or later, which is when the 2028 year began.