Chinese Zodiac Calculator

Twelve animals, five elements and a sixty-year cycle. Enter a date of birth and get the sign, the element and — for anyone born in January or February — the one detail most calculators skip: which side of the Chinese New Year the date falls on. Every year from 1930 to 2043 and each of the twelve signs has its own page below.

Two calendars are in play. The Chinese zodiac year begins on the lunar new year, which falls anywhere between 21 January and 20 February. The Japanese eto 干支 uses the same twelve animals, but Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873 and its zodiac year turns on 1 January. So 2026 is the year of the Horse in Japan from New Year’s Day, while in Chinese reckoning it began only on 17 February 2026 — anyone born in 2026 before that date is a Snake in China and a Horse in Japan. Both answers are correct in their own system; this calculator shows both and says why they differ.

How the cycle works

The animal alone repeats every twelve years. Combined with the five elements — wood, fire, earth, metal, water — each with a yin and a yang year, it repeats every sixty, which is why a sixtieth birthday, kanreki 還暦, is celebrated in Japan as a return to one’s birth sign. One combination carries a superstition strong enough to show in the statistics: the Fire Horse, hinoeuma 丙午, last seen in 1966, when births in Japan fell by about a quarter and recovered the next year. 2026 is itself a Fire Horse year, the first since 1966, and whether the old fear still moves the birth rate is being watched closely. And note the last animal in the list: in China it is the Pig, in Japan the Boar, 猪.