Born in January or February? Check Your Chinese Zodiac Sign

The Chinese zodiac animal changes at Lunar New Year, not on 1 January. If you were born in January or early February, your sign is almost always the previous year's animal — which is not what most English zodiac charts will tell you.

The problem, in one example

Lunar New Year 2024 fell on Saturday 10th February 2024. So someone born on 1 February 2024 was born before the new lunar year began. Their sign is Rabbit (the 2023 animal), not Dragon.

A chart that simply maps "2024 = Dragon" gets this wrong for everyone born in the first five or six weeks of the year — roughly one person in nine.

Why the boundary moves

The zodiac follows the lunar year, and Lunar New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. In Gregorian terms that lands somewhere between 21 January and 20 February, shifting by up to a month from year to year. There is no fixed date to memorise, which is exactly why the shortcut of mapping Western years to animals fails.

The twelve animals also pair with ten heavenly stems to form the sexagenary (ganzhi) cycle, which repeats every sixty years. That is why your "same animal" year comes round every twelve years but your exact ganzhi year only every sixty.

Find your year

Find your birth year, then check which side of the Lunar New Year date your birthday falls on.

For an exact answer including the lunar month and day of your birthday, use the lunar calendar converter.

A second boundary you may meet

Some traditions — particularly Chinese astrology and BaZi reading — start the zodiac year at lichun (立春, "start of spring") around 4 February, rather than at Lunar New Year. The two dates are usually within a fortnight of each other but do not coincide, so a birthday falling between them can be assigned different animals by different systems.

For everyday purposes in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, the Lunar New Year boundary in the table above is the one people mean. If you are having a chart cast professionally, ask which convention the practitioner uses.

Why most English charts get it wrong

Mapping a Western year to an animal is easy to publish and correct about seven times out of eight, so the error propagates. It survives because the people it is wrong about — January and early-February birthdays — rarely have anything to check it against. If you have been told two different animals over the years, this is almost certainly why.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Chinese zodiac year start on 1 January?

No. The zodiac animal changes at Lunar New Year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February depending on the year. Anyone born before Lunar New Year belongs to the previous animal year.

I was born in early February. Which animal am I?

It depends on the exact Lunar New Year date for your birth year. If your birthday falls before it, you have the previous year's animal; on or after it, that year's animal. Check your year in the table on this page.

Why do different websites give me different zodiac signs?

Most likely because one maps Western years straight to animals and ignores the Lunar New Year boundary. A smaller number use lichun (around 4 February) instead of Lunar New Year, which can also differ.

What is the earliest and latest Lunar New Year can fall?

Roughly 21 January at the earliest and 20 February at the latest. It is set by the second new moon after the winter solstice, so it moves within that window each year.

Does this affect my ROC (Minguo) year too?

No. The ROC year changes on 1 January like the Western year, so ROC year = Western year − 1911 regardless of your birthday. Only the zodiac and the lunar date depend on Lunar New Year.