Animal, element and year name from your exact birth date and Lunar New Year
Updated October 2026
Enter your birth date. The calculator looks up Lunar New Year for that Gregorian year; if you were born before it, your lunar year is the previous one. The animal is (lunar year − 4) mod 12, counting from Rat, and the heavenly stem is (lunar year − 4) mod 10, with stems paired into Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, alternating yang and yin. Worked example: January 20, 1990 is before Lunar New Year on January 27, 1990, so the lunar year is 1989. (1989 − 4) mod 12 = 5, the sixth animal, Snake; (1989 − 4) mod 10 = 5, the stem Ji, which is yin Earth. Result: Earth Snake, year name Ji-si.
| Birth date | That year’s Lunar New Year | Lunar year | Sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 20, 1990 | January 27 | 1989 | Earth Snake |
| February 15, 1990 | January 27 | 1990 | Metal Horse |
| February 9, 2024 | February 10 | 2023 | Water Rabbit |
| February 10, 2024 | February 10 | 2024 | Wood Dragon |
| February 3, 2026 | February 17 | 2025 | Wood Snake |
| February 17, 2026 | February 17 | 2026 | Fire Horse |
| Year | Lunar New Year | Sign |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | January 25, 2020 | Metal Rat |
| 2021 | February 12, 2021 | Metal Ox |
| 2022 | February 1, 2022 | Water Tiger |
| 2023 | January 22, 2023 | Water Rabbit |
| 2024 | February 10, 2024 | Wood Dragon |
| 2025 | January 29, 2025 | Wood Snake |
| 2026 | February 17, 2026 | Fire Horse |
| 2027 | February 6, 2027 | Fire Goat |
| 2028 | January 26, 2028 | Earth Monkey |
| 2029 | February 13, 2029 | Earth Rooster |
| 2030 | February 3, 2030 | Metal Dog |
| 2031 | January 23, 2031 | Metal Pig |
The 12 animals repeat in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The 10 heavenly stems give the elements, two years each, so a Gregorian year ending in 0 or 1 is Metal, 2 or 3 Water, 4 or 5 Wood, 6 or 7 Fire, and 8 or 9 Earth (for births after that year’s Lunar New Year). Together the stems and the 12 branches form the 60-year sexagenary cycle, so a Metal Horse year such as 1990 comes around again in 2050.
Lunar New Year falls between January 21 and February 20 in every year from 1901 to 2100 in the Hong Kong Observatory tables, so any birthday in that window needs the exact date. Some traditions, including Four Pillars astrology, start the year at Lichun (Spring Commences, around February 4) instead, which can change the sign for births between the two dates. The Observatory notes that new moons computed decades ahead can be off by a few minutes, enough to move a date by one day in rare cases. The tables run from 1901 to 2100; outside that range the calculator assumes a birth after Lunar New Year.