Year of the Earth Rat
The Year of the Earth Rat falls in 1948, 2008 and 2068. The animal sets the character, and the Earth element colors it: resourcefulness and thrift, plus stability, practicality and patience. It is considered a yang year, meaning more active and outward-facing.
Who Was Born in This Year
People born in 2008 (as well as in 1948 and, in the future, 2068) belong to the “Rat” sign with the “Earth” element.
Note: the Chinese year begins around February 4. People born in January or early February 2008 belong to the previous year of the cycle — check with the calculator.
Personality
The sign’s core quality is quick wits and thrift. Strength: spotting opportunity where others see nothing. Weak spot: anxiety and fussing over trifles.
The Earth element adds stability, practicality and patience, but at the same time it slows things down and adds inertia. The result is a person whose resourcefulness plays out openly and outwardly: they act first and get noticed.
The same combination applies to the year itself: it favors trade, saving and any venture that takes careful calculation. Earth also slows things down and adds inertia.
The Year's Element and Color
The year’s element is Earth; its colors are yellow and ocher. Polarity: yang (active, even-numbered years of the cycle).
In Chinese tradition, a year’s color is simply the color of its element, not a “trendy shade”: it is fixed and nobody chooses it. Learn more about the element’s properties on its page.
Compatibility
Compatibility is determined by the animal, not the element. The best partners for the “Rat” sign are the signs of its trine; the most difficult match is the opposite sign.
All 78 pairs are covered in Chinese zodiac compatibility, and the sign’s own profile is on its own page.
Years of This Sign
Each combination of animal and element repeats once every 60 years; this is the full Chinese cycle, known as jiazi. That is why the Earth Rat year falls in 1948, 2008 and 2068, and the next one will come only sixty years after the last.
The full 60-year table, with years and elements.