What this tool works out
Enter a date of birth and the tool gives your Chinese zodiac animal, your element (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water), whether your year is Yang or Yin, and its name in the sixty-year cycle, such as Bing-wu for a Fire Horse year. It also shows its working, so you can check every step.
Why the lunar new year matters
The Chinese zodiac is attached to the Chinese lunar calendar, not to the first of January. Each Chinese year begins on the lunar new year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February on the Western calendar and changes from year to year. Someone born in January or February may therefore belong to the previous animal. A person born on 4 February 2000, for example, belongs to the Year of the Rabbit, because the Year of the Dragon began on 5 February that year.
The tool uses a table of lunar new year dates for every year from 1901 to 2100, taken from the Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Table published by the Hong Kong Observatory. Your date is compared with the new year of its Western year. If it falls earlier, your Chinese year is the year before.
How the animal and element are found
The twelve animals run in a fixed order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. By the modern convention the year 4 CE was a Rat year, so subtracting 4 from the Chinese year and taking the remainder after dividing by twelve gives the position in the list. The element follows the last digit of the year, each element covering two consecutive years: 0 and 1 are Metal, 2 and 3 are Water, 4 and 5 are Wood, 6 and 7 are Fire, and 8 and 9 are Earth. Even digits are Yang and odd digits are Yin. Together the animal and the element repeat every sixty years.
Each animal also has a fixed element of its own in the older tradition, for example Water for the Rat and Fire for the Horse. The tool shows both, because writers use them in different ways.
What the descriptions are, and are not
The characteristics shown for each animal, such as the Ox being patient and the Tiger being bold, come from long folk tradition and are given here as tradition. They are not findings of psychology, and they say nothing certain about any individual. Many people enjoy the zodiac as a way to talk about family, friends and the years they were born; that is a good use for it. Two people in the same year do not share a character, and the tool does not claim a prediction.
Some cultures keep a slightly different list. In Vietnam the Cat takes the place of the Rabbit. Elsewhere the Goat is called the Sheep or the Ram, and the names for the Rooster and the Pig vary in English.
What this does not cover
The animal of the year is only one of the four pillars of a full Chinese birth chart (the Four Pillars, or Bazi), which also use the month, day and hour and rely on the solar calendar rather than the lunar new year. This tool covers the familiar year animal and element only. For Western astrology, try the Sun, Moon and Rising calculator; to see how two people’s animals relate, use the Chinese zodiac compatibility tool. For a number-based reading, see the life path number calculator. The method page describes how we treat each tradition.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Why does my animal differ from the one for my birth year?
If you were born in January or February, before the lunar new year, you belong to the animal of the previous Chinese year. The tool shows the new year date for your year so you can see where your birthday falls.
↳ How do I find my Chinese zodiac element?
It comes from the last digit of your Chinese year: 0 and 1 Metal, 2 and 3 Water, 4 and 5 Wood, 6 and 7 Fire, 8 and 9 Earth. The tool does this for you and also gives the older fixed element of the animal.
↳ Is the lunar new year date the same everywhere?
The dates used are civil dates in China and Hong Kong. For a birth within a day of the new year in a distant time zone, the date at the place of birth may differ by one day, so family records are the best guide in that case.
↳ Can the Chinese zodiac predict my future?
No. It is a cultural tradition of symbolism and folklore. The descriptions are a prompt for reflection and conversation, and nothing in them is a prediction or a guarantee.
↳ Which years does the tool cover?
Dates from 1901 to 2100, using a published table of lunar new year dates for each year.