1925 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Wood Ox
Born in 1925? You’re a Wood Ox — but only from January 24, 1925 onward. That is the day the Ox year opened, and it held until February 12, 1926.
January 24 is an early opening. The lunar year came in a week and a half before Start-of-Spring on February 4, so the first weeks of 1925 fall between two ways of dating the year — the catch we untangle just below.
Born in 1925? The quick answer
Still the 1924 zodiac year, which did not close until January 23. A birthday in the opening weeks of 1925 lands here, in Rat, not Ox.
The 1925 zodiac year, stem-branch 乙丑. Watch the far end too: a baby born in the first weeks of 1926, up to February 12, is still a Wood Ox, not yet a Tiger.
1925 at a glance
| Detail | 1925 |
|---|---|
| Zodiac animal | Ox (牛 niú) |
| Element | Wood (Yin) |
| Stem-branch | 乙丑 (yǐ chǒu) |
| Exact dates | January 24, 1925 – February 12, 1926 |
| Sign before | Wood Rat (until January 23, 1925) |
| Sign after | Fire Tiger (from February 13, 1926) |
| Age in 2026 (if born during calendar year 1925) | 100 or 101 |
| Traditional allies | Snake, Rooster (trine), Rat (six-harmony) |
| Clash sign | Goat |
Born in January or early February 1925?
On the lunar-year convention this page uses — the standard for looking up a birth-year sign — anyone born between January 1 and January 23, 1925 is a Wood Rat held over from 1924, the year that opened on February 5, 1924. The same logic runs at the closing end: a birth in early 1926, up to February 12, is still counted as a 1925 Wood Ox, not a Fire Tiger.
There is also a second way to date the year. Many BaZi practitioners use Lìchūn, the Start-of-Spring solar term, as the year boundary. In 1925 the lunar new year came first: the Ox year opened on January 24, while Lìchūn followed on February 4, a date recorded in the Hong Kong Observatory’s 1925 almanac. That leaves the eleven days from January 24 through February 3 where the two methods produce different year signs — Ox by the lunar reckoning, still Rat by the solar one. The January–February boundary guide lays both methods side by side.
What a Wood Ox actually is
“Ox” fixes the animal; it takes the element to fix the year. The twelve animals and the five elements run on separate wheels, and a given pairing — Wood with Ox — only returns once every sixty years. 1925 is written 乙丑 (yǐ chǒu), a Yin Wood year. The stem 乙 is wood in its bending form: not the 甲 of the standing trunk and the tall tree, but grass, vine, the shoot that grows around an obstacle rather than through it — the softer, more adaptable of the two wood stems.
In folklore the Ox is the wheel’s steady worker — patient, reliable, unshowy, willing to put in the long hours others skip. Wood is said to lend that patience some give — a little more bend, a little more willingness to grow toward a new direction — rather than change the underlying steadiness. Read that as the picture tradition paints, not a fact about any person. A great many people born in 1925 answered to none of it.
The pillar 1925 shares with 1985
Here is the thread that makes a century-old year feel close. The stem-branch of 1925, 乙丑, is not a one-off — it is one of the sixty combinations on the sexagenary cycle, and it returns on a fixed sixty-year beat:
| Wood Ox year | Age in 2026 for calendar-year births |
|---|---|
| 1865 | A historical cohort; no longer living |
| 1925 | 100 or 101 years old |
| 1985 | 40 or 41 years old |
For people born during calendar year 1925, 2026 means an age of 100 or 101. The Wood Ox zodiac year itself continued into February 1926, so not everyone attached to the 1925 zodiac label is exactly the same age. A person born during the 1985 Wood Ox year nevertheless carries the identical 乙丑 pillar — the same stem and branch, one complete sixty-year turn later. The Wood Ox element page follows what that pairing is traditionally said to mean.
Traditional Ox pairings
In traditional zodiac groupings, the Ox forms a three-harmony trine with the Snake and Rooster, pairs with the Rat in six-harmony, and clashes with the Goat. These fixed animal relationships do not change with the Wood element; the Ox compatibility guide explains each pairing in full.
The years on either side
| Year | Sign | Zodiac dates |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | Wood Rat | Feb 5, 1924 – Jan 23, 1925 |
| 1925 | Wood Ox | Jan 24, 1925 – Feb 12, 1926 |
| 1926 | Fire Tiger | from Feb 13, 1926 |
Watch how the opening date walks: February 5 one year, January 24 the next, February 13 the year after. The lunar new year drifts across a three-week span, and 1925 sat near the early edge of it — which is exactly why a plain birth-year lookup goes wrong so often around the turn of the year. The Ox animal guide collects the Ox years and follows the five elements through them.
1925 Chinese zodiac: common questions
What is the Chinese zodiac sign for 1925?
1925 is an Ox year — the Wood Ox — for anyone born on or after January 24, 1925.
What are the exact 1925 Wood Ox dates?
January 24, 1925 to February 12, 1926. Anything earlier in 1925 belongs to the Wood Rat year of 1924.
What element is 1925 in the Chinese zodiac?
Wood. The full stem-branch name is 乙丑 (yǐ chǒu), a Yin Wood year.
Is everyone born in 1925 a Wood Ox?
No. Births from January 1 to January 23, 1925 fall in the previous Wood Rat year. And someone born in early 1926, up to February 12, is still a 1925 Wood Ox.
How old is someone born in 1925 in 2026?
100 or 101 in 2026, depending on whether their birthday has passed — a centenarian year either way.
What years share the 1925 Wood Ox pillar?
The 乙丑 Wood Ox pillar returns every sixty years: 1865, 1925 and 1985. A person born during the 1985 Wood Ox year shares the exact stem-branch with someone born during the 1925 Wood Ox year.
Who is the 1925 Wood Ox compatible with?
Tradition places the Ox in a trine with the Snake and Rooster, and pairs it with the Rat as its six-harmony partner. The Goat is the clash sign. This is folklore, not a rule about real relationships.
Looking this up for someone born in 1925?
A public page stops at the general facts. If what brought you here is a centenarian in the family, a birthday you’re planning, or a name in an old register, two things carry further than a page like this can:
Where to go next
Editorial note
The calendar side of this page — the January 24, 1925 start, the February 12, 1926 close, the February 4 Start of Spring, and the 乙丑 (yǐ chǒu) stem-branch — can be checked against the Hong Kong Observatory almanac or any sexagenary table. Everything about character, compatibility and fortune is symbolic tradition, shared for cultural interest. It is not a prediction, and it is not medical, financial or relationship advice.