Lunar New Year
The familiar Chinese zodiac convention follows the lunisolar year. Its changeover moves between late January and mid-February, so January 1 is never the correct cutoff.
Find your animal, element, and full year pillar. For January and February births, see both the Lunar New Year answer and the BaZi answer instead of hiding the boundary.
Most dates produce the same animal in both systems. The difference matters around the new-year transition, when a vague birth-year lookup can give the wrong answer for the method you actually want to use.
The familiar Chinese zodiac convention follows the lunisolar year. Its changeover moves between late January and mid-February, so January 1 is never the correct cutoff.
BaZi sets the Year Pillar at the solar term Li Chun, usually around February 4. A boundary-date result needs the system named clearly before it can be interpreted.
The year animal describes one shared outer layer. Your month, day, and hour add three more stem-branch pairs; the Day Master and Five Elements relationships are where the reading becomes personal.
Enter a Gregorian birth date. The calculator converts it to the traditional Chinese calendar for the Lunar New Year zodiac and separately checks the Start of Spring boundary used by a BaZi Year Pillar.
No. The popular zodiac changes at Lunar New Year, which falls in January or February. BaZi usually changes the Year Pillar at Li Chun, the Start of Spring around February 4.
People born between Li Chun and Lunar New Year can receive one animal under the lunar-calendar convention and another in the BaZi Year Pillar. Both answers are valid within their stated systems.
A date-only result is a useful first check, but Li Chun occurs at a specific time. If your birthday is the transition date itself, use your birth time and location in the full Four Pillars calculator before treating the BaZi Year Pillar as final.
The Heavenly Stem of the year supplies Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water and a Yin or Yang polarity. Together with the animal branch it forms a complete 60-year stem-branch label such as Metal Horse.
No. The zodiac animal is the branch of the Year Pillar, only one of eight visible characters. A full BaZi chart also uses the month, day, and hour pillars, including the Day Master and Five Elements balance.
Yes. The date calculation is free and requires no account or email. The linked Four Pillars calculator also shows the chart and introductory reading for free; five deeper chapters are an optional one-time $4.99 unlock.