Lunar Zodiac · The Moon's Cycle
Pig
“Stopped to eat, fell asleep, and finished anyway.”
Polarity: yin · Direction: north · Element: water
The Pig closes the cycle, and it is the most contented sign in it. Generous, sincere and unembarrassed about pleasure, it gives freely, forgives quickly, and sees no virtue in being miserable on the way to anything. It is easy to underestimate and much harder to genuinely upset than most people expect. Its race is the most honest finish in the story. Partway across, the Pig got hungry, so it stopped and ate. Having eaten well, it became sleepy, so it lay down and slept. Then it woke up, remembered the race, and completed the crossing to take twelfth and final place, apparently pleased with how the day had gone. It is the only competitor whose delay was neither a strategy, an accident nor an act of kindness. It simply preferred lunch, and it still made the calendar. Pig people are warm hosts, loyal friends and the ones who feed everybody. They are honest, trusting, and better at enjoying what they have than any other sign on the wheel. The cost is the appetite in every sense: too much of the good thing, a generosity that gets quietly taken advantage of by people who have noticed how rarely it is withdrawn, and a comfort so easy to settle into that years can pass very pleasantly without much being decided.
Years of the Pig
A Pig year opens at Chinese New Year, which falls between late January and the middle of February, so it does not line up with the calendar year. Anyone born in the weeks before it belongs to the animal before.
- 1912January 1, 1912 to February 17, 1912
- 1923February 16, 1923 to February 4, 1924
- 1935February 4, 1935 to January 23, 1936
- 1947January 22, 1947 to February 9, 1948
- 1959February 8, 1959 to January 27, 1960
- 1971January 27, 1971 to February 14, 1972
- 1983February 13, 1983 to February 1, 1984
- 1995January 31, 1995 to February 18, 1996
- 2007February 18, 2007 to February 6, 2008
- 2019February 5, 2019 to January 24, 2020
- 2031January 23, 2031 to February 10, 2032
- 2043February 10, 2043 to January 29, 2044
Pig Ancient Zodiacs
Every sign someone born in the Year of the Pig can be, one for each Western sun sign.
- Boar: Aries Pig, “Warm, hungry for life, and charges rather than runs.”
- Sloth: Taurus Pig, “So committed to comfort that a small world grows on it.”
- Salmon: Gemini Pig, “Restless traveller who always comes home generous.”
- Turtle: Cancer Pig, “Carries home on its back and finds the way back anyway.”
- Koala: Leo Pig, “Small, indulgent, and possessed of a startling roar.”
- Shrimp: Virgo Pig, “Trusted inside the mouths of things that eat everything else.”
- Platypus: Libra Pig, “Refuses every category and is perfectly happy about it.”
- Warthog: Scorpio Pig, “Backs into its own doorway, tusks facing out.”
- Mongoose: Sagittarius Pig, “Cheerful, sociable, and unafraid of the thing in the garden.”
- Snail: Capricorn Pig, “Slow, comfortable, and still moving when the fast ones stop.”
- Beaver: Aquarius Pig, “Rearranges the landscape and calls it a home.”
- Capybara: Pisces Pig, “At ease with absolutely everyone, including the crocodile.”