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Chinese Zodiac Calculator
Find your Chinese zodiac animal and element from your date of birth, counted from Chinese New Year, not 1 January, with the dates your zodiac year ran and the option to count from the start of spring.
Chinese Zodiac Calculator: The zodiac year starts at Chinese New Year, which falls between late January and mid-February, so anyone born in January or early February may belong to the previous year's animal. The page calculates each New Year from the new moon and solar terms in Beijing time and gives the year's place in the sixty-year cycle: the heavenly stem, which sets the element and yin or yang, and the earthly branch, which sets the animal. Runs 100% locally in your browser with zero server file uploads.
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Why the date of birth matters, not just the year
Chinese New Year moves between 21 January and 20 February because it follows the Moon: it is the new moon on or before the day the Sun reaches the solar term Yushui, in Beijing time. Anyone born before New Year in their Gregorian year belongs to the previous animal, which is why a birth year alone can give the wrong sign for January and February birthdays.
Chinese astrology (BaZi, the Four Pillars) uses a different boundary, Lichun, the start of spring, when the Sun reaches 315 degrees, about 4 February each year. The page offers both; they agree for every birthday except those between the two dates.
Animals, stems, and the sixty-year cycle
Each year combines one of ten heavenly stems with one of twelve earthly branches, giving a cycle of sixty: 1984 was 甲子, the first, and 2044 starts the next. The branch gives the animal; the stem gives the element, each element lasting two consecutive years, the first yang and the second yin.
For the full Chinese date of any day, including lunar months and leap months, use the calendar converter; for Chinese New Year and other festival dates, the holiday dates.
How to use it
- Enter your date of birth.
- Keep Chinese New Year as the start of the year, or choose the start of spring (Lichun) as Chinese astrology does.
- Read your animal, element, and the stem-branch name of your year.
Privacy & limitations
Everything is calculated in your browser; your date of birth is not stored or sent anywhere.
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Frequently asked questions
What is my Chinese zodiac sign?
It is the animal of the Chinese year you were born in. The year begins at Chinese New Year, not on 1 January: New Year 2022 fell on 1 February, so someone born on 31 January 2022 belongs to the Ox year that began in 2021, not to the Tiger.
Why do some sites give a different animal for early February birthdays?
Chinese astrology (BaZi) starts the year at Lichun, the start of spring, around 4 February, rather than at Chinese New Year. For birthdays between the two dates the animals differ; the page lets you choose either.
What are the elements?
Each year also has one of five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water, from its heavenly stem, which changes every two years, and is yin or yang. Together with the twelve animals they make a cycle of sixty years: 2026 is 丙午, the Fire Horse.
Which animal is 2027?
The Goat (also called the Sheep or Ram), 丁未, a Fire year, from 6 February 2027 to 25 January 2028.
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