Dragon personality
The Dragon is the only mythical creature among the twelve, and tradition gives it the grandest reading: confident, ambitious and full of energy, a born leader with the charisma to carry others along. People born in Dragon years are read as generous, idealistic and fearless, with big plans and the drive to see them through. In Chinese culture the dragon brings rain and good fortune and was the emblem of the emperor, and Dragon years are thought the luckiest of all.
The shadow side is pride. Dragons are read as impatient with anyone slower than themselves, demanding of others and reluctant to admit a mistake. Tradition's advice to the Dragon is to listen as much as it leads, and to let others share the credit.
The Dragon in love and friendship
A Dragon is read as a passionate, generous partner who sets high standards and needs to be admired as well as loved. Tradition's best matches are the Rat and the Monkey, the Dragon's partners in the trio of animals four years apart: the Rat supports its plans with sharp practical sense, and the Monkey matches its energy and wit. The Rooster is the Dragon's secret friend, one of the six harmonious pairs, read as the organized partner who turns a Dragon's visions into schedules.
The Dog sits opposite the Dragon, six years away, and the pair is read as the classic clash: the Dog questions what the Dragon takes for granted. The Rabbit, one of the six harming pairs, is read as too cautious for a Dragon. These readings go by animal alone. Tradition also weighs each person's element, and the grid further down links to every other animal's page.
The Dragon at work
Tradition expects Dragons to do well in big roles: leading a company or a campaign, politics, law, entertainment and anything with a stage or a vision to sell. They are read as bold decision-makers who thrive under pressure. Minor roles with no room to shine, and rules that seem pointless, are what tradition expects a Dragon to find hardest.
The Wood Dragon year of 2024
The last Year of the Dragon began on February 10, 2024 and ended on January 28, 2025. It was a Wood Dragon year, 甲辰 jiǎchén, the forty-first year of the sixty-year cycle; tradition reads Wood as tempering the Dragon's own Earth, making the Wood Dragon the most creative and fair-minded Dragon. The next Year of the Dragon, a Fire Dragon year, begins on January 28, 2036.
The Dragon's reputation for luck has shown up in birth records. Studies of Chinese communities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia have found more babies born in Dragon years than in the years around them, an effect demographers put down to parents hoping for a Dragon child.
The Dragon in the Great Race
In the best-known story of how the zodiac got its order, the Jade Emperor held a race across a wide river, and the animals took their places in the order they finished. The Dragon could fly and should have won easily, but it arrived fifth. When the Jade Emperor asked why, the Dragon said it had stopped to make rain for villagers whose crops were dying, and in some tellings it had also blown the Rabbit's log safely to the bank.
When does the Year of the Dragon begin?
Each Year of the Dragon starts at the Lunar New Year, the new moon that begins the first month of the Chinese calendar, which falls between January 21 and February 20. So Dragon years don't line up with calendar years: someone born on February 10, 1988 is a Fire Rabbit, because the Earth Dragon year began a week later, on February 17. The checker at the top of this page and the Chinese zodiac calculator both allow for this, and the table above gives the first and last day of every Dragon year since 1904.
Four Pillars astrology (BaZi) counts the year differently, from Lichun, the start of spring in the solar calendar, around February 4. Its Dragon years begin on that day instead, so for a few days either side of the Lunar New Year the two systems can disagree.