Chinese Zodiac: Find Your Animal Year

The Chinese zodiac runs on a twelve year cycle, and your animal is decided by the lunar new year rather than by January 1. If you were born in January or early February, you may belong to the previous year's animal. Enter your birth date and the boundary is handled for you.

All twelve animals

Rat Fast, thrifty and endlessly alert, the Rat opens the cycle by spotting the gap in a situation before anyone else has looked up. Ox Nothing hurries an Ox. Patient and honest, it finishes what other people abandon and rarely asks anyone to notice that it did. Tiger Courage first and questions later: the Tiger is warm-hearted and competitive, and always on the side of anyone treated unfairly. Rabbit The Rabbit gets its way with a soft word rather than a raised one: kind, tactful and happiest in a calm home where nobody shouts. Dragon Big plans, big energy and no patience for anything slow: Dragon people are generous, confident and almost impossible to overlook. Snake Watch, weigh, then move once and cleanly: the Snake is private and observant, and rarely acts before the whole plan is finished. Horse Restless the moment life starts to feel like a cage, the Horse is warm, talkative and full of energy, the free spirit of the twelve. Goat Give a Goat calm surroundings and a little reassurance and the kindness comes out, along with a quiet talent for making things well. Monkey While the rest of the room studies the instructions, the Monkey has already found the shortcut: clever, curious and very funny with it. Rooster Sharp-eyed and hardworking, the Rooster takes real pride in doing a job properly and having it finished before the deadline. Dog Loyalty is the whole story with the Dog: honest, fair-minded, quick to defend its people and very slow to forgive a real betrayal. Pig Sincere, generous and easy to be around, the Pig brings the cycle to a close with a real appetite for good food and honest company.

The animal year changes on Chinese New Year, not on 1 January. The New Year date is not taken from a fixed table: it is calculated with the traditional lunisolar calendar rules, which follow new moons and solar terms, leap months included.