亥
Year of the Pig
hài · 12 of 12 · the hours of 21:00 – 23:00
Last across the line, and in no particular hurry about it.
Years of the pig
1935 · 1947 · 1959 · 1971 · 1983 · 1995 · 2007 · 2019 · 2031
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 pig arrives last in the story because it stopped for a meal and a nap, and the tradition finds this endearing rather than shameful. It is the sign of good-natured generosity: sincere, unsuspicious, and genuinely pleased when other people do well.
The warning is the same trait unguarded. A pig is easy to take advantage of and inclined to indulge itself, and the tradition's advice is less about restraint than about noticing sooner who is spending its goodwill.
In Japan the same branch is read i — Japan reads this branch as the wild boar, which is a rather different animal. 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.