Your Chinese zodiac

The twelve animals are the memorable face of the twelve earthly branches (地支, dìzhī), the counting cycle Chinese astronomers used for years, months and the hours of the day long before the animals were attached to them. Each branch names a year, a month and a two-hour watch of the day, so a person has an animal of the year, of the month and of the hour; the one everybody asks about is the year. The branches pair with the ten heavenly stems (天干, tiāngān), which carry the five elements two years at a time, and because twelve and ten meet again only after sixty years, the same animal with the same element returns once in a lifetime. A sixtieth birthday is marked for that reason: the calendar has come full circle.

Because the branch counts the lunar year, your animal is decided by Chinese New Year, not by 1 January. Chinese New Year falls between 21 January and 20 February, so anyone born in that window belongs to the animal of the year that was ending. The form above checks the exact date; the zodiac calculator explains the arithmetic and the elements, and the lunar birthday calculator gives the lunar date itself.

The year of your own animal is your 本命年 (běnmìngnián), and tradition treats it with caution rather than celebration: it is held to be a year when fortune is unsettled, which is why people entering it wear something red given by family, a belt, a bracelet, a pair of socks, through the whole year. The result above tells you when your next one is. The custom is older than any particular belief about luck; it is a way for a family to mark a person's twelve-year turns at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60, and the red thread given at 60 is often kept.

The animals group into four trines (三合, sānhé), each of three animals four years apart that are held to share a temperament: Rat, Dragon and Monkey the doers; Ox, Snake and Rooster the planners; Tiger, Horse and Dog the idealists; Rabbit, Goat and Pig the peacemakers. Each animal also has one secret friend (六合, liùhé), the pair that sits across from it on the circle of hours and is said to understand it without effort: Rat and Ox, Tiger and Pig, Rabbit and Dog, Dragon and Rooster, Snake and Monkey, Horse and Goat. The animal six years away is the clash (六冲, liùchōng): Rat and Horse, Ox and Goat, Tiger and Monkey, Rabbit and Rooster, Dragon and Dog, Snake and Pig. These are the traditional associations, offered here as culture rather than prediction; every pair is described on the compatibility pages.

Once the result is shown you can make a poster of it: your animal painted in ink, the lunar date of your birth written in characters, and your name. Add a Chinese name and it is set as a round seal in the corner, the way a painter signs. The poster is a one-time purchase of $7.90 for the print-ready files; if you do not have a Chinese name yet, the finder gives you three, free, and the calligraphy of the one you choose is written free as well.