The Chinese Zodiac
Year of the Rooster

Years of the Rooster - 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005

The veneration of the rooster in East Asia is widespread but nowhere is it more pronounced than in Japan and China. In Japan, where the animal is sacred, it is allowed to run freely in Shinto temples where its morning call awakens the sun goddess Amaterasu.

In China, the rooster or cock exemplified the five virtues: civil merit because its comb made it look like a mandarin, military merit because of its spurs, courage because of its fighting ability, reliability because of how it announces the new day, and generosity because of the way it shares its food with hens. In a convenient coincidence, the Chinese ideogram for cock (ki) is pronounced similarly to the ideogram that means "of good omen."

In the Chinese zodiac, people who are born in the Year of the Rooster are considered very observant but also brave and resilient. They are interested in how they look, and how those around them look as well, and have a reputation for being attractive and sexy. Rooster people are "people" people, equally at ease with new faces or entertaining old friends.

People born in the Year of the Monkey are considered most compatible with people born in the Year of the Snake or Dragon while they are least compatible with those born in the Year of the Rabbit.