Chinese zodiac calculator
Your animal, element and year by the Lunar New Year of your birth.
Your files stay on your device
This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you paste is processed on your device and is never sent to a server, so it is safe to use with tokens, keys and unpublished text.
Example
Example: born 25 January 2000 — a Rabbit, not a Dragon
2000 is the Year of the Dragon, but its Lunar New Year fell on 5 February 2000. Type 2000-01-25 with the year start on Automatic.
- 25 January comes before that New Year, so the birth belongs to the year that began on 16 February 1999.
- That year is 己卯: the stem 己 is Earth and yin, the branch 卯 the Rabbit — the Earth Rabbit.
- The page adds that counting from 1 January instead, the year would be the Metal Dragon.
| Date of birth | Sign | That year runs |
|---|---|---|
| 2000-01-25 | Earth Rabbit (1999) | 16 Feb 1999 – 4 Feb 2000 |
| 2000-02-10 | Metal Dragon (2000) | 5 Feb 2000 – 23 Jan 2001 |
| 1990-07-15 | Metal Horse (1990) | 27 Jan 1990 – 14 Feb 1991 |
| 2026-02-16 | Wood Snake (2025) | 29 Jan 2025 – 16 Feb 2026 |
| 2026-02-17 | Fire Horse (2026) | 17 Feb 2026 – 5 Feb 2027 |
Born on 25 January 2000, the sign is the Earth Rabbit, like everyone born from 16 February 1999 on. The Metal Dragon begins only on 5 February 2000.
How it works
- Type your date of birth (1990-07-15), or just a year.
- The sign is counted from the Lunar New Year of that year, found from the new moon; born in January or February, you may belong to the year before.
- You get the animal, the element, yin or yang, the Chinese name of the year and the other years of the same animal.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does my birthday in January or February matter?
- The Chinese year starts at the Lunar New Year, between 21 January and 20 February. Born on 10 January 1990, you belong to the Year of the Snake that began on 6 February 1989, not the Horse of 1990.
- How is the Lunar New Year worked out?
- It is the second new moon after the winter solstice (the third when a leap month comes first, as in 2033), dated in China’s time zone. The new moons are computed with Meeus’s algorithms and checked against published dates.
- What are the element and yin or yang?
- The years run in a 60-year cycle of ten heavenly stems and twelve animals: each stem pairs an element (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) with yang or yin. 2024 is 甲辰, the Wood Dragon, yang.
- Does it tell my fortune?
- No. It gives the sign and the calendar behind it, nothing more.
- What is the Chinese zodiac sign for 2026?
- The Fire Horse (丙午, yang), from 17 February 2026 to 5 February 2027. A baby born from 1 to 16 February 2026 is still a Wood Snake. 2027 is the Fire Goat, from 6 February 2027.
- Which years are Years of the Dragon?
- 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024 and 2036 — each starting at its own Lunar New Year, not on 1 January: 1988’s began on 17 February 1988 and 2024’s on 10 February 2024.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. It is worked out in your browser, and nothing you type leaves your computer.
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