The Chinese zodiac assigns each lunisolar year one of twelve animals and one of five elements. The catch is the boundary: the animal changes at Lunar New Year, a date that moves between late January and mid-February. This calculator computes the Chinese calendar astronomically, so a January birthday is placed in the correct year, and it also shows your birthday in the lunar calendar and the alternative solar-term (Lichun) boundary.
How to use the Chinese zodiac calculator
- Enter a birth date between 1901 and 2100.
- Read the animal on the tape, along with the element, yin or yang, and the stem-branch name of the year.
- Check Lunar year began and ended to see the exact span of that zodiac year.
- The table lists every year of the same animal across several cycles, with start and end dates.
How the Chinese calendar is computed
The traditional calendar is lunisolar. Months begin on the day of a new moon, and the year is kept in step with the seasons by an occasional thirteenth (leap) month. The modern rules, published as a Chinese national standard, are:
- Days are counted in China Standard Time (UTC+8).
- The month that contains the December solstice is month 11.
- If 13 new moons separate two consecutive month-11 starts, the first month with no principal solar term (a multiple of 30° of solar longitude) is a leap month.
- Lunar New Year is the first day of month 1 — usually the second new moon after the December solstice.
The calculator finds new moons with Meeus’s lunar-phase algorithm and solar terms from the Sun’s longitude, then applies these rules. The animal and element follow from simple arithmetic on the lunar year:
Branch 0 is the Rat, 1 the Ox, and so on to 11, the Pig. Stems 0–1 are Wood, 2–3 Fire, 4–5 Earth, 6–7 Metal and 8–9 Water, with even stems yang and odd stems yin.
Worked example
Birth date: January 20, 1990.
Lunar New Year 1990 fell on January 27, so this date belongs to lunar year 1989, which ran from February 6, 1989 to January 26, 1990.
Stem = (1989 − 4) mod 10 = 5 → Jǐ, yin Earth. Branch = (1989 − 4) mod 12 = 5 → Sì, the Snake. The result is the Earth Snake, year 6 of the 60-year cycle, and the lunar birthday is the 24th day of the 12th month.
Someone born a week later, on January 27, 1990, is a Metal Horse instead: the stem for 1990 is (1990 − 4) mod 10 = 6, Gēng, which is yang Metal.
Lunar New Year dates ahead
| Year | Lunar New Year | Sign |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | February 17 | Fire Horse |
| 2027 | February 6 | Fire Goat |
| 2028 | January 26 | Earth Monkey |
| 2029 | February 13 | Earth Rooster |
| 2030 | February 3 | Metal Dog |
| 2031 | January 23 | Metal Pig |
| 2032 | February 11 | Water Rat |
| 2033 | January 31 | Water Ox |
| 2034 | February 19 | Wood Tiger |
| 2035 | February 8 | Wood Rabbit |
The jump from January 31, 2033, to February 19, 2034, is a 13-month year. Its leap month comes right after month 11, so Lunar New Year 2034 arrives three new moons after the December solstice instead of the usual two — a case that simple “second new moon” rules get wrong.
Animals, allies and opposites
Folk astrology groups the animals into four “trines” said to get along — Rat, Dragon and Monkey; Ox, Snake and Rooster; Tiger, Horse and Dog; Rabbit, Goat and Pig — and pairs each animal with the one six places away as its opposite. These are cultural traditions, not predictions, and the calculator lists them only for reference.
Related calendar tools
For the Western sun sign, use the zodiac sign calculator. The moon phase calculator shows the new moons that start each lunar month, and the age calculator gives an exact age in years, months and days.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my Chinese zodiac animal differ from the one for my birth year?
The animal changes at Lunar New Year, which falls between January 21 and February 20, not on January 1. Anyone born in January or early February before that year's new year belongs to the previous animal. For example, January 20, 1990 is still the Year of the Snake, because the Horse year began on January 27, 1990.
What is the 2026 Chinese zodiac animal?
2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse (Bǐng-Wǔ). It began on February 17, 2026 and runs until February 5, 2027, when the Year of the Fire Goat starts.
How are the five elements assigned?
Each year has a heavenly stem as well as an animal. The ten stems pair off into Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, each used for two consecutive years (first yang, then yin). Combined with the twelve animals this gives a 60-year cycle; 1984 began the current cycle as the Wood Rat.
What is the Lichun rule?
Some systems, including the Four Pillars (BaZi) method, start the zodiac year at Lichun, the solar term when the Sun reaches 315° of longitude, around February 4. Births between Lunar New Year and Lichun can get different animals under the two rules, so the calculator shows both.
How accurate are the lunar dates?
The calendar is computed from astronomical new moons and solar terms in China Standard Time, following the current national standard. It reproduces published Lunar New Year dates, including the rare leap eleventh month of 2033, and is supported for 1901 to 2100.