Year of the Rooster: Years List, Traits & Compatibility

Recent Years of the Rooster: 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029. The sign returns every 12 years; the next one after 2017 is 2029. Each occurrence pairs the You (酉) branch with a different Heavenly Stem, so the same animal appears as Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water versions across a 60-year cycle.

A zodiac year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1. Lunar New Year falls between January 21 and February 20, so anyone born in that window should check the exact start date in the table below before assuming the sign.

The 2017 Year of the Rooster (Fire Rooster, Ding-You 丁酉) runs from January 28, 2017 to February 15, 2018, while Li Chun, the year-pillar boundary used by many Bazi schools, falls on February 3, 2017. The next Year of the Rooster begins on February 13, 2029. A Chinese zodiac year does not start on January 1. The popular zodiac year begins at Lunar New Year (late January to mid-February), while many Bazi schools change the year pillar at the Li Chun solar term (around February 4). Use the table to check a January or February birthday against both boundaries.

In the Chinese calendar the Rooster is a label for You (酉), the 10th of the twelve Earthly Branches. You is Yin Metal. It marks the two-hour period of 5–7 pm, the west direction, and mid-autumn.

In a Bazi chart You is also the branch of the 8th solar month, which begins at the Bai Lu (白露, White Dew) solar term. Its hidden stems are Xin 辛 (Yin Metal). Those hidden stems are why the same animal can read differently from one chart to another: they interact with the Day Master in ways the animal symbol does not show.

The traditional relationships are fixed by branch position rather than by personality:

• Six combination (Liu He): Rooster and Dragon.
• Triad (San He): Snake, Rooster, Ox, which together form a Metal frame.
• Clash (Chong): Rooster and Rabbit, the branch six places away.
• Six harm (Liu Hai): Rooster and Dog.

These pairings describe how the branches interact in a calendar or chart. They are not a verdict on any relationship, and a full Bazi comparison looks at all four pillars of both people. The compatibility chart lists the same patterns for every sign.

Popular zodiac writing describes Rooster people as precise, honest, and disciplined. Treat that as cultural symbolism attached to the You branch, not as a personality test: the year animal is one of eight characters in a birth chart, and the Day Master (the stem of the day pillar) carries more weight in a Bazi reading.

2026 is a Bing-Wu (丙午) Fire Horse year. For the Rooster, Wu is neither a traditional harmony nor a clash pair. The 2026 forecast explains how that relationship is usually read, and why it should be checked against the full chart.