How to use it
- Type your birth date. The result appears as you type.
- Read Chinese zodiac animal and Element of the year. If you were born in January or February, check Dates of this Chinese year to see whether your birth falls before the new year.
- Read Traditional compatibility for the animals that harmonise with yours and the one that clashes.
- Open the table to see the same animal in the years around your birth, with the day each Lunar New Year began.
How the Chinese year is found
The Chinese year begins on the Lunar New Year, the first day of the first month. It is the day of a new moon, between 21 January and 20 February, so a birth in the first weeks of the year can belong to the year before. The calculator finds the new moon that starts the year with astronomy-engine, read in Beijing time (UTC+8), and compares your birth date with that day.
The dates follow the astronomical new moon at Beijing time, as the official calendars do. A new moon within minutes of midnight can make published sources differ by a day: in 2030 the new moon is at 00:08 on 3 February in Beijing, and some tables print 2 February. Before 1929 the Chinese calendar counted days by Beijing local mean time (UTC+7:45:40), so new moons before 1 January 1929 are read at that offset and later ones at UTC+8. The Hong Kong Observatory publishes the official conversion table for 1901 to 2100.
animal = (year − 4) mod 12, with 0 = Rat
element and polarity = the heavenly stem (year − 4) mod 10Animal, element and polarity
Each year has an animal from the twelve-year cycle and an element from the five-element cycle. The element lasts two years in a row: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water in turn. Even stems are yang and odd stems are yin, so the polarity alternates each year.
The animal and the element together make a sixty-year cycle, so the same animal returns every twelve years with a different element. 1990 is the Year of the Metal Horse; 2002 is the Year of the Water Horse.
Compatibility from tradition
The tradition groups the animals in fours. Each group has three animals that harmonise: Rat, Dragon and Monkey; Ox, Snake and Rooster; Tiger, Horse and Dog; Rabbit, Goat and Pig. Each animal also has a six-harmony partner and an opposite, which the tradition calls a clash.
These are traditional notes. They describe how the animals are said to relate, and they do not predict a real relationship.
Worked example: 15 June 1990
15 June 1990 falls after the Lunar New Year of 27 January 1990, so it belongs to the Chinese year 1990, the Year of the Metal Horse (Geng Wu).
The element is Metal and the polarity Yang. The Chinese year lasted from January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991, the day before the next Lunar New Year.
A Horse's harmonising group is Tiger and Dog, its six-harmony partner is Goat, and its clash is Rat.
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Animal | Horse |
| Element and polarity | Metal, yang (Geng Wu) |
| Dates of the year | January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991 |
| Six-harmony partner | Goat |
Frequently asked questions
What if my birthday is in January or February?
Enter your exact birth date. If it falls before that year's Lunar New Year, the Chinese year is the year before, and your animal and element belong to it. The result shows the dates of the year that applies.
Why does the Chinese year not start on 1 January?
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar: the months follow the Moon and the year follows the seasons. The new year is the first day of the first month, which falls on a new moon between late January and late February, so it moves from year to year.
Which element is my year?
The element comes from the last digit of the year in the heavenly stem cycle: years ending in 0 or 1 are Metal, 2 or 3 are Water, 4 or 5 are Wood, 6 or 7 are Fire, and 8 or 9 are Earth in the traditional table. The page computes it for you.
Does the Chinese zodiac match a horoscope?
No. It is a twelve-year cycle of animals with traditional meanings, which is a different system from the Western zodiac of the sun signs.
Is the Chinese zodiac the same in every country?
The animals and the calendar are shared across East Asia, but the names of the animals and the traditions around them differ between countries, such as Vietnam, where the cat replaces the rabbit.
Does the calculator store my birth date?
No. The calculation runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent to a server or kept.
Sources
- Hong Kong Observatory: Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Table, 1901 to 2100
- astronomy-engine, the new moon at Beijing time (MIT licence)
- Wikipedia: Sexagenary cycle, with the Lunar New Year dates of each year from 1924
- Wikipedia: Chinese zodiac, the animals, the elements and the traditional relations
Figures and text last checked on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.