Chinese zodiac
The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the five elements that turn them into a sixty-year cycle, and the years each one rules, from the lunar calendar.
Test yourself: Chinese zodiac quiz
The twelve animals
- Year of the RatThe Rat is the first of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch zi. The most recent Year of the Rat ran from 25 January 2020 to 11 February 2021; the next begins on 11 February 2032.
- Year of the OxThe Ox is the second of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch chou. The most recent Year of the Ox ran from 12 February 2021 to 31 January 2022; the next begins on 31 January 2033. In Vietnam it is the year of the water buffalo.
- Year of the TigerThe Tiger is the third of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch yin. The most recent Year of the Tiger ran from 1 February 2022 to 21 January 2023; the next begins on 19 February 2034.
- Year of the RabbitThe Rabbit is the fourth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch mao. The most recent Year of the Rabbit ran from 22 January 2023 to 9 February 2024; the next begins on 8 February 2035. In Vietnam it is the year of the cat.
- Year of the DragonThe Dragon is the fifth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch chen, and the only one that is not a real animal. The most recent Year of the Dragon ran from 10 February 2024 to 28 January 2025; the next begins on 28 January 2036.
- Year of the SnakeThe Snake is the sixth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch si. The most recent Year of the Snake ran from 29 January 2025 to 16 February 2026; the next begins on 15 February 2037.
- Year of the HorseThe Horse is the seventh of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch 午 wǔ. The current Horse year, a Fire Horse, began on 17 February 2026 and ends on 5 February 2027; the next begins on 4 February 2038.
- Year of the GoatThe Goat (also called the Sheep or the Ram) is the eighth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch 未 wèi. The last Goat year ran from 19 February 2015 to 7 February 2016; the next, a Fire Goat, begins on 6 February 2027 and ends on 25 January 2028.
- Year of the MonkeyThe Monkey is the ninth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch 申 shēn. The last Monkey year ran from 8 February 2016 to 27 January 2017; the next, an Earth Monkey, begins on 26 January 2028 and ends on 12 February 2029.
- Year of the RoosterThe Rooster is the tenth of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch 酉 yǒu. The last Rooster year ran from 28 January 2017 to 15 February 2018; the next, an Earth Rooster, begins on 13 February 2029 and ends on 2 February 2030.
- Year of the DogThe Dog is the eleventh of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch 戌 xū. The last Dog year ran from 16 February 2018 to 4 February 2019; the next, a Metal Dog, begins on 3 February 2030 and ends on 22 January 2031.
- Year of the PigThe Pig (in Japan, the Boar) is the twelfth and last of the animals of the Chinese zodiac, the animal of the earthly branch 亥 hài. The last Pig year ran from 5 February 2019 to 24 January 2020; the next, a Metal Pig, begins on 23 January 2031 and ends on 10 February 2032.
Elements and the cycle
- Five elements (wu xing)Wood, fire, earth, metal and water: the five phases (五行 wǔxíng) of Chinese thought, which describe how things change rather than what they are made of. In the Chinese calendar each year takes the element of its heavenly stem, and the element follows the year’s last digit: years ending in 6 and 7, such as 2026 and 2027, are Fire years.
- Fire Horse2026 is a Fire Horse year (丙午 bǐngwǔ), the first since 1966: by the Hong Kong Observatory’s calendar it began on 17 February 2026 and ends on 5 February 2027. In Japan, where the year is called hinoeuma, a belief about girls born in it was followed in 1966 by a fall of about a quarter in births.
About chinese zodiac
The Chinese zodiac, shengxiao (生肖) in Chinese, names each year of the lunar calendar after one of twelve animals, always in the same order: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Each animal’s page lists the years it holds from 1924 to 2031, with the dates each one begins and ends from the Hong Kong Observatory’s calendar tables, and explains where the animal’s place comes from and how other countries vary it. The five elements page shows how the animals combine with wood, fire, earth, metal and water into a cycle of sixty years, and the Fire Horse, the year that comes round once in sixty and last came in 2026, has a page of its own.
When the year changes
The animal changes at the Lunar New Year, the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar, which Encyclopaedia Britannica places between 21 January and 20 February. The Hong Kong Observatory, which compiles Hong Kong’s calendars, has long used that day for the change, and China’s national standard for the calendar, issued in 2017, agrees with it. Fortune-tellers often count from Spring Commences (lichun), the solar term around 4 February, instead, the Observatory notes, which is why popular charts can disagree for people born between the two dates. Japan moved the cycle onto the solar calendar, Britannica records.
Twelve animals and sixty years
The animals belong to the twelve earthly branches, a Chinese system of counting years and hours in twelves to which the animals were later added, Britannica explains. The branches are paired with ten heavenly stems to name each year, starting from Jia-zi, so that each pair returns every sixty years, as the Observatory sets out: 2026 is Bing-wu, the year of the Horse. The stems carry the elements, wood for jia and yi and fire for bing and ding in the Huainanzi’s scheme, which is why 2026 is a Fire Horse.
How old the twelve animals are
The oldest known list is in a day book for choosing lucky and unlucky days, buried in 217 BC in a Qin tomb at Shuihudi in Hubei, which uses the animals to describe thieves. It differs from today’s list, the Wuhan University historian Yan Changgui points out: it has a deer for wu and a horse for wei, and no animal at all for chen, the dragon’s branch. A second Qin day book, from Fangmatan in Gansu, has differences of its own. In these texts the branches count days, not years. The Observatory dates the naming of years by animals to about AD 100, and Wang Chong’s Lunheng, from the same century, has long been taken as the first full record of the twelve. Readings of character by birth year are younger again: Ming Wilson of the Victoria and Albert Museum calls them a fairly recent development, though Yan finds people born in tiger years likened to tigers in the Taiping jing of the Han.
Across East and Southeast Asia
The cycle is kept well beyond China. Britannica notes it in North and South Korea, Cambodia and Singapore, and records local changes: in Japan the boar takes the pig’s place, in some parts of Thailand an elephant does, and in Thailand a naga, a serpent being, replaces the dragon. Vietnam has the water buffalo for the ox and the cat for the rabbit, so 2023 was a Year of the Cat there, as the Voice of America reported. In the United States the holiday is often called Chinese New Year, the Library of Congress notes, though Korean and Vietnamese Americans keep it too, as Seollal and Tết.
Sources
- Chinese zodiac (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Frannie Comstock, “Chinese zodiac”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Internet Archive copy, 29 September 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica, introduction; History and legend; Personalities, meanings, and other variations
- What year is it today? (Hui Tai-wai, Hong Kong Observatory), Hui Tai-wai, “What year is it today?”, Hong Kong Observatory educational resources, April 2018, Hong Kong Observatory, paragraphs 2, 4 and 6
- Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches (Hong Kong Observatory), Hong Kong Observatory, “Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches”, Calendar pages, Hong Kong Observatory, opening paragraph
- The 12-Year Animal Cycle (Hong Kong Observatory), Hong Kong Observatory, “The 12-Year Animal Cycle”, Calendar pages, Hong Kong Observatory, paragraph 1
- Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Table of 2026 (Hong Kong Observatory), Hong Kong Observatory, Gregorian–Lunar Calendar Conversion Table of 2026, yearly text file, Hong Kong Observatory, title line
- Huainanzi, Tianwen xun 天文訓 (Chinese Wikisource), Huainanzi 淮南子, chapter 3 “天文訓” (Celestial Patterns), 2nd century BC; Chinese text on Wikisource, Wikisource (Chinese), the passage pairing stems and branches with the five elements
- 中国传统生肖文化探源 (Yan Changgui, People’s Tribune), Yan Changgui 晏昌贵 (School of History, Wuhan University), “中国传统生肖文化探源” (The origins of the traditional Chinese zodiac), 人民论坛 People’s Tribune, 16 October 2025, 人民论坛 People’s Tribune, “十二生肖溯源”
- 十二生肖起源可推至战国 (Fan Guodong, Chinanews / Wuhan Evening News), “十二生肖起源可推至战国 鼠身兼阴阳居首位”, interview with Fan Guodong 凡国栋, Wuhan Evening News 武汉晚报, reprinted by China News Service, 15 February 2015, China News Service (chinanews.com), interview text
- The 12 zodiac animals at the V&A (Ming Wilson), Ming Wilson, “The 12 zodiac animals at the V&A”, V&A Blog (Imperial Chinese Robes from the Forbidden City), 1 February 2011, Victoria and Albert Museum, introduction
- Why Vietnam Is Celebrating the Year of the Cat, Not the Rabbit (VOA / AFP), “Why Vietnam Is Celebrating the Year of the Cat, Not the Rabbit”, Voice of America (from AFP), January 2023, Voice of America, paragraphs 1 and 4
- Celebrating Lunar New Year with the Library of Congress’s Collections (Dianne Choie), Dianne Choie, “Celebrating Lunar New Year with the Library of Congress’s Collections”, 4 Corners of the World blog, Library of Congress, February 2024, Library of Congress, introduction; Korea; Vietnam
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research