Chinese zodiac: Difference between revisions

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{{task}}Determine the Chinese zodiac sign and related associations for a given year.

In the Chinese calendar, years are identified using two lists of labels, one of length 10 (the "celestial" (or "heavenly") "stems") and one of length 12 (the "terrestrial" (or "earthly") "branches"). The labels do not really have any meaning outside their positions in the two lists; they're simply a traditional enumeration device, used much as Westerners use letters and numbers. They were historically used for months and days as well as years, and the stems are still sometimes used for school grades.

In the Chinese calendar, years are identified using two lists of labels, one of length 10 – the "celestial" (or "heavenly") "stems" – and one of length 12 – the "terrestrial" (or "earthly") "branches". The labels do not really have any meaning outside their positions in the two lists; they're simply a traditional enumeration device, used much as Westerners use letters and numbers. They were historically used for months and days as well as years, and the stems are still sometimes used for school grades.

Years cycle through both lists concurrently, so that both stem and branch advance each year; if we used Roman letters for the stems and numbers for the branches, consecutive years would be labeled A1, B2, C3, etc. Since the two lists are different lengths, they cycle back to their beginning at different points: after J10 we get A11, and then after B12 we get C1. However, since both lists are of even length, only like-parity pairs occur (A1, A3, A5, but not A2, A4, A6), so only half of the 120 possible pairs are included in the sequence. The result is a repeating 60-year pattern within which each name pair occurs only once.

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Mapping the branches to twelve traditional animal deities results in the well-known "Chinese zodiac", assigning each year to a given animal. For example, Saturday, February 10, 2024 CE (in the common Gregorian calendar) began the lunisolar Year of the Dragon.

The stems do not have a one-to-one mapping like that of the branches to animals; however, the five ~~pairs~~ of consecutive stems are each associated with one of the ~~five~~ traditional wǔxíng elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water). Further, one of the two years within each element is assigned to yin, the other to yang.

The stems do not have a one-to-one mapping like that of the branches to animals; however, the five _pairs_ of consecutive stems are each associated with one of the traditional wǔxíng elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water). Further, one of the two years within each element is assigned to yin, the other to yang.

Thus, the Chinese year beginning in 2024 CE is also the yang year of Wood. Since 12 is an even number, the association between animals and yin/yang aspect doesn't change; consecutive Years of the Dragon will cycle through the five elements, but will always be yang.