How the calculator works
It reads your birthday the way saju, the Korean Four Pillars, reads it. The year you were born gives your zodiac animal and its element. Your month, day and hour of birth are three more pillars, each with an animal and an element of its own. The time is optional: without it you get three pillars instead of four.
Why two calculators can give you two animals
Your animal changes with the year, but the zodiac year does not begin on 1 January, and there are two ways to say when it does. Most zodiac calculators begin it at Lunar New Year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February. Saju begins it at the start of spring (ipchun), the solar term near 4 February, to the minute.
For most birthdays the two agree. If you were born between the two new years, they name different years, and this calculator shows you both. Your saju chart reads the start of spring.
The Lunar New Year here is Korea’s, computed from the new moons. In rare years it falls a day after China’s, when the new moon arrives just after midnight in Korea and just before it in China.
Your zodiac element and your day element
The element a zodiac calculator gives you is the element of your birth year. It follows the last digit of the zodiac year: 0 and 1 are Metal, 2 and 3 Water, 4 and 5 Wood, 6 and 7 Fire, 8 and 9 Earth.
Saju reads you by a different element: the element of the day you were born, which saju books call the day master. It is the first thing your InnateGlyph glyph is built from, and it is often not your year element.
The twelve animals
They follow each other in this order, one a year, and come back every twelve years. Paired with the five elements, the whole cycle takes sixty years.
- Rat
- Ox
- Tiger
- Rabbit
- Dragon
- Snake
- Horse
- Goat
- Monkey
- Rooster
- Dog
- Pig
Questions
What is my Chinese zodiac sign?
The animal of the year you were born. Enter your birthday above. If your birthday is in January or early February, it may sit between the two new years, and the calculator shows you both animals.
What is my Chinese zodiac element?
The element of your birth year, which the calculator gives you beside your animal. It also gives your day element, the one saju reads as you.
Is the Korean zodiac the same as the Chinese zodiac?
Yes. Korea uses the same twelve animals in the same order, and calls a person’s animal their tti. The only difference you may meet is the day a lunar year begins, which is Korea’s here.
Do I need my birth time?
No. Your year, month and day animals need only the date. The time adds the fourth, your hour animal.
Is my birthday saved?
No. It is sent once to work out your animals and is not stored, here or in an account.