What this tool shows you
Four separate things get calculated for any date, and they're often confused with each other:
- The lunar date — which lunar month and day it falls on, like 正月初九 (ninth day of the first month)
- The ganzhi year — the two-character name of the year, like 戊寅, built from a heavenly stem and an earthly branch
- The zodiac animal — the animal attached to that branch, which is the layer most people know
- The element — the phase carried by the year's stem, which is why some tiger years are Wood and others Fire
Why the year boundary matters
A lunar year begins at Chinese New Year, not January 1. So if you were born in January or early February, your lunar year — and your zodiac animal — is usually the previous Gregorian year's.
This trips up a lot of zodiac calculators, which simply take the birth year and divide by twelve. This tool uses the actual new year dates, so it gets those edge cases right.
Want the system behind it? →The twelve earthly branches, the ten heavenly stems, and how they combine. Includes the chant Chinese children learn to remember them.