丑
Year of the Ox
chǒu · 2 of 12 · the hours of 01:00 – 03:00
Carried the winner and came second without complaint.
Years of the ox
1937 · 1949 · 1961 · 1973 · 1985 · 1997 · 2009 · 2021 · 2033
Each one begins at that year's new year, not on 1 January — so a January birthday in one of these years belongs to the animal before.
The ox is the sign of work that gets finished. Patient, methodical, and difficult to hurry or divert — the tradition credits it with the kind of strength that shows up over years rather than in a moment.
The cost is the same trait read from the other side. An ox that has decided something has decided it, and the reasoning that got there is not usually up for review. Steadiness and stubbornness are one quality seen from in front and behind.
In Japan the same branch is read ushi. The twelve are the eto there, and they still name the hours, the directions and the years.
Which animal you actually are depends on the day you were born rather than the year on the certificate — work it out exactly, free, from the real lunisolar boundary.