干支 · 酉 (とり)
Rooster — The Proud Performer
The Rooster is one of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, a yin sign with Metal as its fixed element (recent Rooster years include 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041). Confident, observant, and hardworking. Roosters notice everything — perfectionists with a sharp eye and sharper tongue. People born in a Rooster year are typically confident, observant and diligent.
Personality
The Rooster is observant, hardworking, and confident. Those born in this year are detail-oriented perfectionists with strong moral character.
Strengths
Strengths in depth
The Rooster's defining strengths run to honesty, hard work, confidence, resourcefulness and courage — the practical gifts that let a Rooster turn its natural temperament into real results.
Challenges
Challenges to watch
Left unchecked, the Rooster's weaknesses tend to surface as vanity, criticism, impatience, boastfulness and selfishness. Naming these patterns early is how a Rooster keeps its strengths from tipping into their shadow side.
Best careers
The Rooster is well suited to careers such as entertainment, public relations, military, police, journalism and travel, where its strengths have room to work.
Best matches
Difficult pairings
Who matches the Rooster
The Rooster matches most naturally with the Ox, the Snake and the Dragon — the animals of its zodiac trine, who share a compatible rhythm and tend to bring out the Rooster at its most confident. These trine partners usually make the easiest friendships and the steadiest love matches. Harmony runs thinnest with the Rabbit and the Horse, whose pace and priorities pull against the Rooster's temperament rather than complementing it. Sharpest of all is the clash with the Rabbit, the Rooster's opposite sign: seated six positions away on the twelve-year wheel, it meets the Rooster head-on, which is why traditional Chinese astrology calls it the Rooster's secret enemy. None of these pairings is a fixed verdict — knowing where friction naturally lives is what lets any Rooster relationship be understood and made to last.
Rooster years
A Rooster year comes around once every twelve years, when the Rooster takes its turn as the ruling animal of the Chinese zodiac's repeating cycle. Recent and upcoming Rooster years include 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041 — anyone born within one of those lunar years carries the Rooster as their birth-year sign. The twelve animals always run in the same fixed order, so a Rooster year follows the Monkey's and gives way to the Dog's. The Rooster's own fixed element is Metal, but each pass through the cycle also carries one of the five heavenly elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — in a sixty-year rotation, so no two Rooster years feel quite the same. Counting forward in twelve-year steps, the next Rooster year after 2041 falls in 2053.
Frequently asked questions
What years are the Rooster?
Recent Year of the Rooster dates include 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041. The Rooster is a yin sign whose fixed element is Metal.
What is the Rooster personality?
The Rooster is typically confident, observant, diligent, honest and courageous. Confident, observant, and hardworking. Roosters notice everything — perfectionists with a sharp eye and sharper tongue.
Which signs match the Rooster?
The Rooster matches best with the Ox, Snake and Dragon. These pairings share the natural harmony of the Chinese zodiac trine the Rooster belongs to.
What is the Rooster's enemy sign?
The Rooster's secret enemy is the Rabbit, the sign that sits directly opposite it — six positions away on the twelve-year wheel. This head-on opposition is the sharpest natural clash of temperament in the Chinese zodiac, which is why tradition names the Rabbit the Rooster's enemy sign.
What element is the Rooster?
The Rooster's fixed element is Metal, and the Rooster is a yin sign. This Metal polarity stays constant behind the rotating heavenly element that colours each individual Rooster year.
When is the next Rooster year?
Rooster years recur every twelve years. The most recent example years are 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041; counting forward, the next Rooster year after 2041 falls in 2053.