🐉 Chinese Zodiac Calculator

Find your animal, element & compatibility
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🎏 Cultural tradition, for fun & self-reflection. Chinese zodiac is a rich tradition from Chinese culture. Personality descriptions and compatibility are general archetypes — not predictions.

🔍 Find Your Chinese Zodiac Sign

Next Lunar New Year
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The 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals

Click an animal to read its full profile.

Animal Compatibility Guide

Traditional Chinese astrology groups the 12 animals into four trine (三合) groups of natural harmony. Animals within the same trine support each other. Animals directly opposite (six apart) face the most friction.

First Trine 🔴 — Pioneers
🐭🐉🐒
Rat · Dragon · Monkey
Ambitious, charismatic, strategic. These three share intelligence, creativity, and a drive to succeed. They understand each other's need for stimulation and achievement.
Second Trine 🟡 — Purposeful
🐂🐍🐓
Ox · Snake · Rooster
Patient, determined, and value hard work. Practical in nature, they build carefully and appreciate reliability and refinement in relationships.
Third Trine 🟢 — Idealists
🐯🐴🐕
Tiger · Horse · Dog
Passionate, independent, and governed by strong ethical codes. They fiercely value freedom, loyalty, and honesty — the natural champions of causes.
Fourth Trine 🔵 — Empaths
🐇🐐🐷
Rabbit · Goat · Pig
Gentle, artistic, and deeply empathetic. They create harmony around them and excel in environments of beauty, creativity, and compassionate connection.

Compatibility Checker

The Five Elements

Each pair of consecutive years shares an element, cycling through all five to complete the 60-year sexagenary cycle. The last digit of your birth year determines your element.

⚙️ Metal
Last digit: 0 or 1
Strength, determination, discipline, ambition. Metal people are principled and persistent.
💧 Water
Last digit: 2 or 3
Wisdom, communication, flexibility. Water people are perceptive, empathetic, and adaptable.
🌿 Wood
Last digit: 4 or 5
Growth, creativity, compassion. Wood people are idealistic, nurturing, and community-oriented.
🔥 Fire
Last digit: 6 or 7
Passion, energy, leadership. Fire people are bold, enthusiastic, and naturally charismatic.
🌍 Earth
Last digit: 8 or 9
Stability, reliability, groundedness. Earth people are trustworthy, patient, and devoted.

How the Calculation Works

Animal Formula

The 12 animals cycle starting from the Rat. The standard calculation: (year − 4) mod 12 gives a number 0–11 mapping to Rat through Pig.

Example: 1990 → (1990 − 4) = 1986 → 1986 mod 12 = 6 → index 6 = Horse ✓

Element Formula

The element is determined by the last digit of the year: 0–1 = Metal, 2–3 = Water, 4–5 = Wood, 6–7 = Fire, 8–9 = Earth. This creates the two-year element cycles.

Example: 1990 → last digit 0 → Metal Horse ✓. 2000 → last digit 0 → Metal Dragon ✓. 2024 → last digit 4 → Wood Dragon ✓

⚠️ Lunar New Year Boundary (Critical)

The Chinese zodiac year begins on Lunar New Year, not January 1. Lunar New Year falls between January 21 and February 20 of the Gregorian calendar, on a different date each year.

If you were born in January or early February: your zodiac sign may belong to the previous calendar year. For example, someone born on January 15, 1990 (before Lunar New Year 1990) would have the same animal as people born in 1989.

Why we don't embed a full per-year LNY date table from memory: Embedding exact historical Lunar New Year dates from memory risks propagating errors for specific years. The exact dates require verified astronomical data. We use the safe approach: flag January/February birthdays with a clear note and direct you to verify your specific year's Lunar New Year date at a reliable source such as the timeanddate.com lunar calendar or a perpetual calendar.

The 60-Year Sexagenary Cycle

Combining 12 animals × 5 elements = 60 unique year types before any combination repeats. This 60-year cycle (甲子 gānzhī) is one of the oldest continuous calendar systems in the world, used alongside the Gregorian calendar for cultural and astrological purposes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Enter your birth year in the calculator above. The Chinese zodiac animal cycles every 12 years using the formula (year − 4) mod 12. However, if you were born in January or early February, your sign may actually belong to the previous year — because Chinese New Year falls between January 21 and February 20. The calculator will flag this and prompt you to verify.
In order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. The cycle repeats every 12 years, beginning again with the Rat.
The five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) cycle in two-year pairs. The last digit of your birth year determines it: 0 or 1 = Metal, 2 or 3 = Water, 4 or 5 = Wood, 6 or 7 = Fire, 8 or 9 = Earth. So 1990 (last digit 0) = Metal; 2024 (last digit 4) = Wood.
Chinese New Year is based on the lunisolar calendar, falling on the second new moon after the winter solstice. Because the moon's cycle doesn't align exactly with the Gregorian calendar year, this places Lunar New Year between January 21 and February 20 on a date that shifts annually. This is why people born in January or early February must verify their exact year's LNY date.
Traditional compatibility uses four trine groups: (1) Rat, Dragon, Monkey — ambitious and creative; (2) Ox, Snake, Rooster — purposeful and determined; (3) Tiger, Horse, Dog — idealistic and free-spirited; (4) Rabbit, Goat, Pig — gentle and empathetic. Animals six positions apart (e.g. Rat and Horse) are traditionally considered opposing signs.
The 60-year cycle (sexagenary cycle) combines 12 animals with 5 elements. Since 12 × 5 = 60, every animal-element combination (e.g. Wood Dragon) appears once every 60 years. 2024 is Wood Dragon; the previous Wood Dragon year was 1964, and the next will be 2084.