page_title: Dragon (zodiac)
section_title: Years and the Five Elements
hierarchical_section_title: Dragon (zodiac) / Years and the Five Elements
caption_attribution_description: English: Chinese Dragon Lantern Festival in China 2012.
context_page_description: The Dragon is the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dragon is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 辰, pronounced chen.
  It has been proposed by one academic researcher that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions; it may have symbolized the star Antares. In the Buddhist calendar used in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, the Dragon is replaced by the nāga. In the Gurung zodiac, the Dragon is replaced by the eagle. In the Persian zodiac, the Dragon is replaced by the whale. In Old Turkic calendar it is replaced by the fish.
context_section_description: People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Dragon", while bearing the following elemental sign:
  There are typically marked spikes in the birth rates of countries that use the Chinese zodiac or places with substantial Overseas Chinese populations during the year of the Dragon, because such "Dragon babies" are considered to be lucky and have desirable characteristics that supposedly lead to better life outcomes. The relatively recent phenomenon of planning a child's birth in the Dragon year has led to hospital overcapacity issues and even an uptick in infant mortality rates toward the end of these years due to strained neonatal resources.
caption: The Water Dragon Lantern Festival.
exif: {}