One’s own zodiac year: Benmingnian
The returning animal
Benmingnian (本命年) is the year in which a person's birth-year animal returns. Its rhythm comes from the twelve earthly branches: a Rat year is followed twelve years later by another Rat year. In popular observance, this return can be treated as a year requiring special protection.
The animal returns sooner than the complete stem-and-branch pair. Each animal accompanies five different stems before both parts of the name recur after sixty years. The sequence beginning with the Jia-Zi Rat year of 1984 shows the difference.
| Gregorian year in which the Chinese calendar year begins | Stem–branch pair | Animal | Years after 1984 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Jia-Zi | Rat | 0 |
| 1996 | Bing-Zi | Rat | 12 |
| 2008 | Wu-Zi | Rat | 24 |
| 2020 | Geng-Zi | Rat | 36 |
| 2032 | Ren-Zi | Rat | 48 |
| 2044 | Jia-Zi | Rat | 60 |
For someone born in that 1984 Rat year, every later row is a benmingnian. Only 2044 repeats the complete Jia-Zi pair. A returning animal also does not necessarily restore a name such as Wood Rat, because the phase attached to the heavenly stem changes between twelve-year returns.
Red clothing and protective observance
Red clothing expresses protection and good wishes during benmingnian. In northern Chinese practice, people may wear red underwear or other red garments during the Spring Festival because the returning animal year is considered potentially unlucky. The particular garment and length of observance vary between families.
Tai Sui worship provides a related religious setting. In this tradition, sixty year deities take turns presiding over the stem-and-branch years. The deity associated with a person's birth year and the deity presiding over the current year belong to this sixty-part framework.
In Taiwanese temple practice, an Tai Sui (安太岁) is an observance through which worshippers seek Tai Sui's protection and pray for a peaceful year. It is a temple ritual with its own arrangements, rather than a necessary part of wearing red. The animal's twelve-year return and the deities' sixty-year rotation are related cycles, but they are not identical.
The year boundary and a person's age
Benmingnian begins with the chosen animal-year boundary, not January 1 or the anniversary of birth. The Chinese calendar year begins at Chinese New Year. Some divinatory traditions use Lichun, Beginning of Spring, so a birth between the two boundaries can receive a different animal-year label under those conventions.
The returning years are often associated with ages twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six and so on. They begin at the annual calendar boundary, however, and may start before the corresponding birthday in completed years. Traditional age reckoning can give a different age label again. The defining comparison is between the birth-year animal and the animal of the year being observed.
A lunar birthday is an anniversary identified by lunar month and day. Benmingnian lasts for the returning animal year and is not a single birthday celebration.