Cathay Ink › Chinese zodiac › Year of the Rabbit › 2023
Year of the Rabbit 2023
The Water Rabbit, 癸卯: from Chinese New Year on 22 January 2023 to 9 February 2024.
Gentle, tactful and perceptive. The Rabbit prefers harmony to confrontation and tends to be the one everyone confides in. Water years favour adaptability: plans that bend, conversations that flow, patience with the long way round.
The Water Rabbit
Element
Water years are associated with adaptability and depth: rivers finding their way. In the sixty-year cycle each animal meets each element once, so the Water Rabbit came last in 1963 and returns in 2083. The year's 纳音 (the "sound" of its stem and branch in the old almanacs) is 金箔金.
Company
The Rabbit shares a trine with the Goat and the Pig; its secret friend is the Dog. Those signs are said to find a Rabbit year easiest. The Jade Rabbit lives on the moon, pounding the elixir of life under the osmanthus tree; look for it at Mid-Autumn.
Years of the Rabbit
Each starts at Chinese New Year.
- 1927Fire Rabbit, from 2 February 1927
- 1939Earth Rabbit, from 19 February 1939
- 1951Metal Rabbit, from 6 February 1951
- 1963Water Rabbit, from 25 January 1963
- 1975Wood Rabbit, from 11 February 1975
- 1987Fire Rabbit, from 29 January 1987
- 1999Earth Rabbit, from 16 February 1999
- 2011Metal Rabbit, from 3 February 2011
- 2023Water Rabbit, from 22 January 2023
- 2035Wood Rabbit, from 8 February 2035
Questions
When does the Year of the Rabbit 2023 start and end?
It starts at Chinese New Year, 22 January 2023, and ends on 9 February 2024, the day before the next new year.
What element is the Rabbit in 2023?
Water (水), from the heavenly stem 癸. Water years are associated with adaptability and depth: rivers finding their way.
Is a baby born in January 2023 a Rabbit?
No. A baby born before 22 January 2023 belongs to the previous animal, the Tiger. The zodiac year follows the lunar calendar, not 1 January.
Which other years were Water Rabbit years?
1963. The same stem and branch return every sixty years.
Your Rabbit in ink
The Rabbit painted in ink wash above your name and lunar birthday.
Make the poster
Enter your birthday; we set the animal, the element, the lunar date and your name, and add a Chinese name as a seal if you have one.
Start with my birthdayMore about the animal: Year of the Rabbit. All twelve: the zodiac.