How to use the chinese zodiac calculator
- Enter a date of birth between February 19, 1901 and December 31, 2100.
- Read the animal, the element, whether the year is yin or yang, and the stem and branch name of the year.
- Check the year began on date. If your birthday falls before it, the tool has already used the previous zodiac year.
- See the table of other years of the same animal, with their elements and Lunar New Year dates.
Formula
Zodiac year = the calendar year, or the year before if the date is before that year's Lunar New Year
Position in the 60 year cycle = (zodiac year - 4) mod 60
Animal = position mod 12, and element = from the last digit of the year (4 and 5 Wood, 6 and 7 Fire, 8 and 9 Earth, 0 and 1 Metal, 2 and 3 Water)
The year starts on the Lunar New Year, the first day of the first lunar month. The dates for 1901 to 2100 come from the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables.
Someone born on May 15, 1990, and one born on February 9, 2024
The Lunar New Year of 1990 was January 27, so May 15, 1990 is inside the zodiac year 1990. The position in the cycle is (1990 - 4) mod 60 = 6, which gives the Horse. The last digit 0 means Metal and the digit is even, so it is yang. The stem and branch name is Geng-wu, and the result is a Metal Horse.
The Lunar New Year of 2024 fell on February 10. A baby born on February 9, 2024 is still in the year of 2023, the Water Rabbit, while a baby born on February 10 is a Wood Dragon (Jia-chen).
Why the animal is not just the birth year
The Chinese zodiac runs in a 12 year cycle, and each year belongs to an animal: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The year does not start on January 1. It starts on the Lunar New Year, which falls between about January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar. So someone born in January or early February may belong to the animal of the previous year.
This is the most common mistake in simple lookup lists. The tool avoids it by using a table of the Lunar New Year date for every year from 1901 to 2100, taken from the Hong Kong Observatory and fetched on October 13, 2026. All 200 animals match the names printed in those yearly tables.
Elements, yin and yang, and the 60 year cycle
The 12 animals combine with the 10 heavenly stems to give a cycle of 60 years. Each pair of stems shares an element (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), and the stems alternate yang and yin. The name of a year, such as Geng-wu, is its stem and branch. This tool shows the element and the stem and branch as they follow from the year number, using the usual convention that the year 4 CE is the start of a cycle.
Other traditions count other things, such as a person's month, day and hour animals or a different start of the year. Those are not modeled here. For other date questions, try the age calculator or the moon phase calculator.
Time zones and the cut-off day
The Hong Kong Observatory tables give the Lunar New Year in China Standard Time (UTC+8). If someone was born in another time zone within a day of the new year, their local date may differ from the date in China by one day. When it matters, check the exact hour of birth against the new moon that starts the year. The tool also leaves out dates before February 19, 1901 and after 2100, because it has no verified table for them. The anniversary calculator can help with milestone dates.
Assumptions and limits
- Lunar New Year dates come from the Hong Kong Observatory yearly tables for 1901 to 2100 and use China Standard Time (UTC+8).
- The zodiac year changes on the Lunar New Year, not on January 1 or at Lichun (the start of spring).
- The element follows the last digit of the zodiac year, and the cycle starts at year 4 CE.
- Birth dates before February 19, 1901 and after December 31, 2100 are not covered.
Frequently asked questions
What Chinese zodiac animal am I?
Enter your date of birth. The tool finds the Lunar New Year of that year and gives the animal of the year your birthday falls in, which for January and early February birthdays is often the animal of the previous year.
Why does my zodiac differ from the year chart I saw?
Many charts list calendar years, which are wrong for people born before Lunar New Year. The tool uses the exact new year date for each year.
How is the element decided?
It follows the last digit of the zodiac year: 4 and 5 are Wood, 6 and 7 are Fire, 8 and 9 are Earth, 0 and 1 are Metal, and 2 and 3 are Water.
Where do the Lunar New Year dates come from?
They come from the Hong Kong Observatory gregorian-lunar conversion tables for the years 1901 to 2100, which the tool reads as the first day of the first lunar month.