Look up the Chinese zodiac animal and five-element attribute for a Gregorian birth date. The Chinese calendar assigns each year one of twelve animals (Rat through Pig) in a fixed rotation, plus one of five elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) that repeats on a ten-year rhythm.
How it works
The tool reads the year from your ISO birth date and computes its offset from 1900 (the reference Year of the Rat). The offset modulo 12 selects the animal from a fixed twelve-year rotation (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig); the offset modulo 10 selects the element on a repeating ten-year rhythm. It uses the calendar year directly and does not shift birth dates near the lunar new year into the prior year.
When to use it
- Looking up your own or someone else's zodiac animal for entertainment or cultural interest
- Preparing content around Lunar New Year or cultural-education material
- Quickly cross-referencing a birth year against its animal without a lookup table
Limitations
The traditional Chinese New Year falls on a different Gregorian date each year (typically late January to mid-February); this tool always uses the calendar year of the birth date as given and does not adjust for people born before the lunar new year cutover in a given year. It provides a cultural classification, not an astronomical lunar-calendar calculation or a personalized forecast.
Example
Birth year 1990 yields zodiac animal Horse with element Wood. Birth year 1991 yields Goat with Fire.