Chinese Zodiac Calculator
Find your Chinese zodiac animal and element from your date of birth, using the actual Lunar New Year date for that year, 1901 to 2100.
Result
Zodiac animal: Snake
The sign follows the Lunar New Year date. Four Pillars (BaZi) astrology starts the year at Lichun, around 4 February, which can give a different sign.
- Element and animal
- Earth Snake
- Yin or yang
- Yin
- Stem and branch
- Ji-Si
- That zodiac year began
- February 6, 1989
- Note
- Born before Chinese New Year 1990 (1990-01-27), so the sign is that of the year before.
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How to use the Chinese Zodiac Calculator
- Enter your date of birth, not just the year.
- Read your zodiac animal, its element and whether the year is yin or yang.
- If you were born in January or February, check the note. Before Chinese New Year you belong to the year before.
How the sign is found
The page first decides which Chinese year your birthday belongs to. If you were born on or after that Gregorian year’s Lunar New Year, it is the same year; if before, it is the year before. Then the animal and element follow from that year by counting, since both repeat on fixed cycles.
zodiac year Gregorian year, or the year before if born before New Yearanimal (zodiac year − 4) mod 12 0 Rat, 1 Ox, 2 Tiger … 11 Pigstem (zodiac year − 4) mod 10 0 Jia … 9 Guielement stems in pairs: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Wateryin or yang even stems yang, odd stems yinThe counting starts at 4 because 4 CE was a Jia-Zi year, the first of the 60-year cycle.
The span the page covers
The New Year dates come from a published table, not a calculation, so the page answers only for the years the table covers, 1901 to 2100. Lunar New Year depends on when the new moon falls in China’s time zone, and a few minutes either side of midnight can move it by a day. That is why a published table is more reliable here than a formula.
With your numbers
- The zodiac year starts at Chinese New Year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February
- Animals repeat every 12 years and elements every 10, so a full cycle of element and animal takes 60 years
Quick reference
The sign follows the Lunar New Year date. Four Pillars (BaZi) astrology starts the year at Lichun, around 4 February, which can give a different sign.
| Example | Zodiac animal |
|---|---|
| 20 January 1990 | Snake |
| 1 March 1990 | Horse |
| 10 February 2024 | Dragon |
| 9 February 2024 | Rabbit |
| 17 February 2026 | Horse |
| 6 February 2027 | Goat |
| 1 January 2000 | Rabbit |
| 15 August 1985 | Ox |
Where the numbers come from
The fixed figures this calculator relies on, and the published source each one was checked against. How the calculators are built and checked
1 source
Hong Kong Observatory, Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables, https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/gts/time/conversion.htm, yearly files T1901e.txt to T2100e.txt, the date marked "1st Lunar Month" (downloaded 2026-10-04). ICU 78.2 disagrees in 1954, 2027 and 2030; HKO is used.
Used for
- Years in the Chinese New Year table, 1901 to 2100. Verifying this verifies every date in the table.
Common questions about the Chinese Zodiac Calculator
- Why does my birth date matter and not just the year?
- The zodiac year starts at Chinese New Year, which moves between 21 January and 20 February. Anyone born in January or early February may belong to the previous year's animal. A list that goes by year alone gets those people wrong, which is why the page asks for the full date and uses that year's actual New Year.
- Where do the New Year dates come from?
- From the Hong Kong Observatory's Gregorian-Lunar conversion tables, which give every date from 1901 to 2100. In 2027, for example, they put New Year on 6 February. Some software that computes the lunar calendar itself gives 7 February, so a date-based answer can differ from other tools in a handful of years.
- How are the elements assigned?
- Each year has one of ten heavenly stems, which go in pairs through Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, the first of each pair yang and the second yin. Years ending in 4 and 5 are Wood, 6 and 7 Fire, 8 and 9 Earth, 0 and 1 Metal, and 2 and 3 Water. Together with the twelve animals that makes a 60-year cycle.
- My horoscope says a different animal. Why?
- Four Pillars of Destiny (BaZi) astrology starts the year at Lichun, the start of spring in the solar calendar, around 4 February, not at Lunar New Year. For someone born between those two days the animals differ. The popular zodiac, and this page, use Lunar New Year.
- What does the stem and branch mean?
- It is the year's name in the sexagenary cycle, the traditional Chinese way of numbering years. Bing-Wu, for example, is the year of the Fire Horse. Each name comes round once every 60 years.