My parents always thought, and therefor taught me, that if one is born on or after the first day of the Lunar New Year, then the newborn's Chinese zodiac sign would be that of the new lunar year. But years later, in consulting a feng shui master for my parents' house, and having picked up a healthy interest in feng shui by then, my parents learned of the all-important "lap chun" day in the Lunar Calendar, which is the first day of spring. The new lunar year actually starts on this "lap chun" day and not on the Chinese New Year day!
Very confusing, I know! Because then, we discovered that my son is actually a dragon and not a snake. A bonus! My son was born after Chinese New Year but before the lap chun date in the year succeeding the year of the dragon.
My inlaws were not aware of this little bit of Chinese feng shui knowledge but were very pleased when we told them their grandson is a dragon baby after all. My inlaws then chimed that there is always a dragon in the family. Ahemmm...............
Since the Chinese can be said to be obsessed with dragon babies, I found these lap chun calendar birth years for dragons from born in the year of the dragon: - 09:16 Feb. 5, 1928 – 15:07 Feb. 4, 1929
- 07:07 Feb. 5, 1940 – 12:48 Feb. 4, 1941
- 04:52 Feb. 5, 1952 – 10:44 Feb. 4, 1953
- 03:04 Feb. 5, 1964 – 08:45 Feb. 4, 1965
- 00:39 Feb. 5, 1976 – 06:32 Feb. 4, 1977
- 22:42 Feb. 4, 1988 – 04:26 Feb. 4, 1989
- 20:40 Feb. 4, 2000 – 02:27 Feb. 4, 2001
- 18:22 Feb. 4, 2012 – 00:12 Feb. 4, 2013
Feng shui master Lillian Too simplifies all this by stating that lap chun almost always falls on February 4 every year (as is corroborated by the calendar of dragon years above). So, if one is born before February 4, your Chinese zodiac animal would be that of the previous year.
An example for further clarification that I found on skillon.com explains that when a child is born on 25 January 2012 ( a dragon year), does she belong to the previous year's Rabbit or the 2012 Dragon? The answer: she belongs to the Rabbit and not the Dragon. Why? This is because as long as she is born before “Lap Chun” which normally falls on 4th or 5th February, she still belongs to the previous year’s Chinese zodiac sign. This is always the case regardless when the date for Chinese New Year is. So, with Chinese New Year on 23rd January 2012 and “Lap Chun” only arriving on 4th February 2012, all those born between 4 Feb 2012 and 4th February 2013 (according to the able above, up to 12.12 am) belong to the Rabbit.
To further complicate matters, there are years in the Chinese calendar called blind year or double blind year, when there is no lap chun, hence no official start of spring! This happens when the Chinese New Year starts after 5th of February and ends before or after the first day of spring in the succeeding year. Needless to say, such years are said to be inauspicious, or perhaps, more challenging than usual.
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