The Pig is the animal of generosity: sincerity, good humor, and a taste for shared pleasures.
The animal that closes the cycle by celebrating it: its generosity enriches those around it, and its trust deserves protecting.
A spontaneous generosity: the Pig gives readily of its time, its laughter, and its table, with no ulterior motive.
Its easy trust exposes it to disappointment, and its taste for pleasure can lead it to put off effort.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
| Year | Starts | Element | Polarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971辛亥 | January 27, 1971 | Metal | Yin |
| 1983癸亥 | February 13, 1983 | Water | Yin |
| 1995乙亥 | January 31, 1995 | Wood | Yin |
| 2007丁亥 | February 18, 2007 | Fire | Yin |
| 2019己亥 | February 5, 2019 | Earth | Yin |
| 2031辛亥 | January 23, 2031 | Metal | Yin |
| 2043癸亥 | February 10, 2043 | Water | Yin |
The Pig loves life as it comes: shared meals, long friendships, unfussy conversations.
Sincere and kindly, it readily believes what it is told and forgives easily. It works well when the atmosphere is warm. Its downside: a naivety that exposes it, a taste for comfort that can tip into excess, and difficulty saying no. Choosing its commitments, and keeping a little distance when committing, protects its generosity. People choose it as a confidant because it listens without judging, remembers details, and does not seek to shine. Its parties are known for their warmth, its advice sincere, its gifts often unexpected. It believes in people, and that is what makes it endearing as well as vulnerable: a flattering word or a well-told story can make it grant its trust too quickly. It also has a streak of happy laziness, which enjoys the table, the nap, and conversation. Cultivating a little discernment, learning to check before promising, and setting itself precise goals lets it protect what is most precious in it: its kindness.
The Pig loves with warmth and loyalty.
It makes home a welcoming place, likes to give, share, and surrender to simple pleasures. It may overlook warning signals out of kindness. Listening to its own unease, and voicing it gently, protects its trust without wearing it down. It loves without calculation and brings happiness through its simplicity, warmth, and taste for shared moments.
Honest, patient, and collaborative, it brings warmth to a group and quickly earns colleagues’ trust.
It excels in roles of hospitality, service, food service, mediation. It does well to learn to negotiate and set clear limits, so as not to carry more than its share. It rallies people through its good humor and sense of fairness, and feels ill at ease in atmospheres of rivalry.
At its place, people eat well, laugh, linger at the table.
It enjoys weekends with no schedule and small improvised parties. Keeping a reasonable budget and pace spares it disappointing mornings after, and leaves intact the pleasures it savors most. Markets, family meals, slow strolls: it relishes the convivial side of daily life.
The element changes from one twelve-year cycle to the next: the same animal year comes back with a different element, and the same pairing returns every sixty years.
1935, 1995, 2055
The Wood Pig is said to be the most sociable and most creative: it invents, welcomes, gathers, at the risk of promising too much.
The Wood element →1947, 2007, 2067
The Fire Pig is said to be more spirited and more demonstrative: it leads its life with passion and tolerates brakes poorly.
The Fire element →1959, 2019, 2079
With Earth, the Pig is said to gain stability: it roots itself in its habits, becomes dependable, and looks after its home.
The Earth element →1923, 1983, 2043
The Water Pig is said to double its element: very receptive and sensitive to atmosphere, it needs calm spaces to recharge.
The Water element →Triangle, opposition, secret friend, harm: relationships handed down by tradition, described without a score.
Four years apart: the same affinities, according to tradition.
Six years apart: face to face on the circle.
A pair known as “secret friends” (liuhe).
A pair known as “harm” (liuhai), one that needs adjusting.
In Chinese tradition, the pig evokes abundance and prosperity: a household that raises one is a household that eats.
It closes the legendary race in twelfth position, delayed, it is said, by a meal or a nap on the way. The image of a gluttonous but happy animal flows from these stories, none of which is established with certainty. In the Chinese countryside, a well-fed pig signaled a prosperous household, and the animal features in New Year wishes for abundance. Piggy banks, common in several countries, recall this link with wealth. The story of the race, here, matters above all for the image of a good-natured animal.
Each year of the Pig begins at Chinese New Year, between January 21 and February 20: a birth in January or early February often belongs to the previous animal.
Before the year’s Chinese New Year, the animal is still that of the previous year: the Dog. Example: January 22, 2031, the eve of the 2031 New Year, still belongs to the Dog.
Check with my date →All the years in the table: 1911, 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043, 2055, 2067, 2079, 2091.
Last in the cycle, the Pig comes around every twelve years. Its years appear below with their Chinese New Year: the animal does not change at midnight on December 31, but at the opening of the Chinese year.
Possibly, but not certainly. If your birth falls before the first day of the Chinese year, it still belongs to the previous animal. The tool places your date relative to the New Year and flags the cases to check with great precision.
Tradition credits it with generosity, sincerity, good nature, and a zest for life; it faults it for naivety and excess. The image is symbolic and schematic: it serves to name tendencies, not to assign them to a person.
Its trine of affinity includes the Rabbit and the Goat, its secret harmony the Tiger. Against the Snake it is in opposition, against the Monkey in harm. This traditional vocabulary describes climates of encounter, never a destiny: the compatibility page details each case.