Calendar
The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, in order
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. Why this order, what each animal stands for in the calendar, and the animal of your birth hour.
Which animal rules your birth hour?
Double hour of 06:00 to 06:59
Rabbit hour
| Earthly branch | Mao 卯 |
| Double hour | 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. |
Clock time as recorded; daylight saving time and longitude corrections used by some astrologers are not applied.
The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac come in a fixed order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The order is that of the twelve earthly branches, Zi to Hai, which counted years, months, days and hours long before animals were attached to them; the Hong Kong Observatory dates the use of twelve-year animal cycles for recording years to about 100 A.D., and lists the animals as mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each branch also names one of the twelve double hours of the day, starting with the Rat hour from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., and one of the twelve months, with the first month assigned to the Tiger. The popular story of a race called by the Jade Emperor, won by the Rat on the Ox's back, explains the order for children; it is a legend, not the history of the calendar.
Which animal is this year?
Lunar year starting in 2000
Metal Dragon
| Starts | February 5, 2000 |
| Ends | January 23, 2001 |
| Stem-branch | Geng-Chen 庚辰 |
| Yin or yang | yang |
Dates read in the HKO tables by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
The twelve animals at a glance
| No. | Animal | Branch | Fixed element | Double hour | Lunar month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rat | Zi 子 | Water, yang | 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. | 11th |
| 2 | Ox | Chou 丑 | Earth, yin | 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. | 12th |
| 3 | Tiger | Yin 寅 | Wood, yang | 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. | 1st |
| 4 | Rabbit | Mao 卯 | Wood, yin | 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. | 2nd |
| 5 | Dragon | Chen 辰 | Earth, yang | 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. | 3rd |
| 6 | Snake | Si 巳 | Fire, yin | 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. | 4th |
| 7 | Horse | Wu 午 | Fire, yang | 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. | 5th |
| 8 | Goat | Wei 未 | Earth, yin | 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. | 6th |
| 9 | Monkey | Shen 申 | Metal, yang | 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. | 7th |
| 10 | Rooster | You 酉 | Metal, yin | 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. | 8th |
| 11 | Dog | Xu 戌 | Earth, yang | 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. | 9th |
| 12 | Pig | Hai 亥 | Water, yin | 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. | 10th |
Branches before animals
The branches are older than the animals. They were used to count days and to name the hours and the months; the animals were added as an easy way to remember them, and they spread with the calendar to Korea, Japan and Vietnam, where some animals differ. The Hong Kong Observatory explains that years with the same branch share the same animal, so the sixty names of the cycle contain five years of each animal, one for each element.
The legend of the great race
In the most common version, the Jade Emperor invited all animals to a race across a river and promised the first twelve a year each. The Rat and the Cat asked the Ox to carry them; the Rat pushed the Cat into the water and leapt ahead of the Ox at the finish. The Tiger came third, the Rabbit hopped across on stones and logs, the Dragon came fifth because it stopped to bring rain, and the Pig arrived last after a meal and a nap. The story also explains, for children, why cats chase rats. Versions differ from one telling to the next.
How does tradition pair these two signs?
Rat and Horse
Opposite signs (liu chong)
| Rat triad | Dragon, Monkey |
| Rat opposite | Horse |
Folk tradition, not a prediction.
Hours of the day
The twelve double hours are called shichen. The tool at the top of the page gives the animal of any clock hour, using the table of the Observatory, which starts the Zi hour at 11 p.m. A birth at 11:30 p.m. is in the Rat hour of the next day in traditional reckoning, a detail that matters to astrologers casting a chart, not to the year sign.
Months and seasons
The first lunar month is the Yin month, the Tiger's, and the winter solstice falls in the Zi month, the Rat's, the eleventh. The Horse holds the summer solstice month and the Rooster the autumn equinox month. The calendar converter shows the month and the solar term for any date.