1975 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Wood Rabbit (乙卯)

1975 was a 乙卯 (Yi Mao) year — the 52nd of the sixty stem-and-branch combinations, and in everyday English a Wood Rabbit year. The element in that name comes from the heavenly stem 乙 (Yin Wood); the branch 卯, the Rabbit itself, carries Wood whatever the stem above it says. Its na yin, the older sixty-part scheme, reads 大溪水 — a Water na yin.

The 1975 zodiac year did not start on 1 January. It started at Lichun (立春), 4 Feb 1975, 18:59 (Beijing time, UTC+8), and ran until the instant before Lichun 1976, 5 Feb 1976, 00:39 (Beijing time, UTC+8). Chinese New Year 1975 fell on 11 February 1975, a separate boundary that festivals use; between the two dates the popular and the classical conventions disagree. Anyone born in January or early February 1975 should check the table below before claiming a sign.

1975 is one of 9 Rabbit years between 1924 and 2027, and the only Wood Rabbit year in that span, because stem and branch only line up again after sixty years: the same 乙卯 pillar last stood in 1915 and returns in 2035.

Born on 1 January 1975? That is a Tiger, not a Rabbit: the Wood Tiger year 甲寅 ran on until 4 February 1975 at 18:59 Beijing time.

Lichun is an astronomical instant, not a date: in 1975 it fell at 18:59 Beijing time (UTC+8). The instant itself starts the Rabbit year, so a birth at 18:59 on that day is already a Rabbit. Convert your own birth moment to Beijing time first — a birth in the Americas on the previous evening can already be past Lichun in Beijing. Check an exact birth date and time.

Ten stems and twelve branches only return to the same pairing after sixty years, so 乙卯 belongs to 1915, 1975 and 2035 and to no year in between. That is why a sixtieth birthday is traditionally marked: it is the year the whole pillar comes back.

Wood Rabbit (Yi Mao) doubles a yin Wood stem over a yin Wood branch, the least mixed form of the sign. Yi is the climbing plant rather than the tree, so the tradition reads it as flexibility raised to a principle: adaptation, indirect routes, and survival by bending. The classical caution is that a Rabbit with nothing firm in the chart has no position of its own to defend.

At Lichun 2027 someone born in 1975 is 51 if their birthday has not yet come round and 52 if it has. The nominal age (虚岁), counted as one at birth and raised at each Chinese New Year, is 53 once New Year 2027 has passed.

The full reading — the month-by-month table, the five-element relationship with the year stem and the traditional remedies — is on Rabbit in 2027. For the part of the sign that does not move with the year, see the Rabbit profile.