Cathay Ink › Chinese zodiac › Year of the Rat › 2008
Year of the Rat 2008
The Earth Rat, 戊子: from Chinese New Year on 7 February 2008 to 25 January 2009.
Quick, resourceful and sociable. The Rat opens the cycle: it is the sign of beginnings, of noticing the opening before anyone else and slipping through it. Earth years favour steadiness: consolidating, caring for what is already there, the harvest of earlier work.
The Earth Rat
Element
Earth years are associated with steadiness and care: harvest, soil, the centre. In the sixty-year cycle each animal meets each element once, so the Earth Rat came last in 1948 and returns in 2068. The year's 纳音 (the "sound" of its stem and branch in the old almanacs) is 霹雳火.
Company
The Rat shares a trine with the Dragon and the Monkey; its secret friend is the Ox. Those signs are said to find a Rat year easiest. In the race that fixed the order of the zodiac, the Rat rode across the river on the Ox's back and leapt ahead at the bank to finish first.
Years of the Rat
Each starts at Chinese New Year.
- 1924Wood Rat, from 5 February 1924
- 1936Fire Rat, from 24 January 1936
- 1948Earth Rat, from 10 February 1948
- 1960Metal Rat, from 28 January 1960
- 1972Water Rat, from 15 February 1972
- 1984Wood Rat, from 2 February 1984
- 1996Fire Rat, from 19 February 1996
- 2008Earth Rat, from 7 February 2008
- 2020Metal Rat, from 25 January 2020
- 2032Water Rat, from 11 February 2032
- 2044Wood Rat, from 30 January 2044
Questions
When does the Year of the Rat 2008 start and end?
It starts at Chinese New Year, 7 February 2008, and ends on 25 January 2009, the day before the next new year.
What element is the Rat in 2008?
Earth (土), from the heavenly stem 戊. Earth years are associated with steadiness and care: harvest, soil, the centre.
Is a baby born in January 2008 a Rat?
No. A baby born before 7 February 2008 belongs to the previous animal, the Pig. The zodiac year follows the lunar calendar, not 1 January.
Which other years were Earth Rat years?
1948. The same stem and branch return every sixty years.
Your Rat in ink
The Rat painted in ink wash above your name and lunar birthday.
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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 Rat. All twelve: the zodiac.