Chinese zodiac

What it's for

The Chinese zodiac assigns each year one of 12 animals, repeating in 12-year cycles, plus an element (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) over a 60-year cycle.

Note

The Chinese year doesn't start on January 1 but on Chinese New Year (late January/February): if you were born in the first days of the year, your sign may be the previous year's. Entertainment content.

How the cycle works

It isn't a monthly horoscope: in the Chinese zodiac the animal belongs to the whole year, and the twelve animals repeat in a circle, always in the same order — Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. From this comes something almost nobody knows: knowing someone's animal means knowing their age to within twelve years, which is why in China asking for the animal is a polite way of asking the year of birth.

The five elements, and the cycle of sixty

Above the twelve animals turns a second cycle, that of the five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), which changes every two years. The two cycles together only repeat after sixty years, the lowest common multiple of twelve and ten: that's why the sixtieth birthday carries a special meaning in the cultures that use this calendar, it's the moment the birth combination comes back.

The year doesn't start on 1 January

This is the one point where this tool needs reading carefully. Chinese New Year follows the lunisolar calendar and falls between 21 January and 20 February, on a different day each year. Anyone born in January or early February therefore belongs, nearly always, to the animal of the previous year: here the working out is based on the solar year, so in those six weeks the answer should be checked against the exact New Year date for that year.

Nearby tools

For the western zodiac, which goes by days rather than years, there is Star sign. For the exact age Age calculator and for days lived Days lived; to know what day of the week a certain date was Difference between dates.