Chinese Zodiac Calculator

Each Chinese year belongs to one of twelve animals, in a fixed order from Rat to Pig, and one of five elements, each held for two years, one yang and one yin: together a 60-year cycle. The year does not start on 1 January but at Chinese New Year.

We compute every New Year rather than copy a table: the lunar month that holds the December solstice is the 11th, and New Year is the second new moon after that month begins (the third when a leap month falls in between, as in 2033-34). New moons and the solstice come from the Swiss Ephemeris, in China time. Every date from 1950 to 2035 agrees with the published calendar.

Before 1929 China kept Beijing local time, 14 minutes behind today's China time; a new moon in those 14 minutes before midnight could shift an old New Year by a day.

The years below start at Chinese New Year, so January and early February birthdays belong to the year before: use the calculator for those.

The element follows the last digit of the Chinese year: two years each for Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, the even one yang and the odd one yin.

The traditional chart pairs each animal with its six-harmony partner (the best match), its two three-harmony partners, its opposite (the clash) and its six-harm partner. Any other pair is neutral. It describes animals, not people: plenty of clashing couples do well.

The Chinese zodiac is a separate tradition from Jyotish: its animals are years, not signs of the sky. The closest Vedic question, "which sign am I?", is answered by the rashi, the Moon's sign at birth: the rashi calculator finds it, and the nakshatra calculator the Moon's star. India has its own 60-year cycle too, the samvatsaras, counted by Jupiter.