The 12 animals

Year of the Snake: years, dates and elements

The Snake, sixth of the twelve, stands for the Si branch. Its years, the exact day each one began, and what tradition says.

Were you born in a year of the Snake?

Any date from 1901 to 2100.

Year starts at

"New year" is the lunar new year, the usual rule. "Feb 4 term" is Spring Commences, the rule of Four Pillars charts. Everything you enter stays in this browser: nothing is sent or stored.

Born July 1, 2001

Metal Snake

Stem-branchXin-Si 辛巳, yin
Lunar birth dateday 11 of the 5th month, 2001
That lunar year: January 24, 2001 to February 11, 2002
All about the year of the Snake

The Snake is the sixth animal of the Chinese zodiac and the sign of Si, the sixth earthly branch, a Fire branch on the yin side. The last Snake year, a Wood Snake, ran from January 29, 2025 to February 16, 2026, which means that anyone born in the first half of February 2026 is still a Snake. The next Snake year is a Fire Snake, beginning on February 15, 2037. The dates on this page come from the Gregorian-Lunar conversion tables of the Hong Kong Observatory. In Chinese folklore the Snake is sometimes called the little dragon, and it is a figure of wisdom and mystery more than of danger; portraits of Snake people stress intuition, discretion and elegance. Those portraits belong to tradition and to popular almanacs, and this site describes them without presenting them as true of any person born in a Snake year.

How does tradition pair these two signs?

Snake and Ox

Triad (san he)

Snake triadOx, Rooster
Snake oppositePig

Folk tradition, not a prediction.

Compare two exact birth dates →

Dates read in the HKO tables by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources

Si: late morning and the fourth month

The Si branch names the double hour from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the fourth lunar month, which opens the summer with the Summer Commences term in early May. As a Fire branch, Si stands on the south-east of the circle, close to the Horse at the height of summer.

The phrase little dragon, xiao long, is used in everyday speech for the Snake, and some families prefer it when they talk about a child's sign. In the Legend of the White Snake, one of China's four great folk tales, the heroine is a snake spirit who becomes a woman out of love, a story told in opera and film for centuries.

Born in a year of this animal?

Snake and a birth in 2026

Only before Feb 17, 2026

Born Feb 17, 2026 or laterFire Horse
Born before Feb 17, 2026Wood Snake
Next Snake year2037
Check your exact birth date →

February 2026 births

The Horse year began on February 17, 2026. Every baby born from January 1 to February 16, 2026 belongs to the Wood Snake, and the mini-tool above shows the boundary for any year. In 2013 the Snake year itself began on February 10, 2013, so early 2013 births are Dragons.

Snake pairings in tradition

Folk tradition groups the Snake with the Ox and the Rooster, names the Monkey as its harmony pair, and sets it opposite the Pig. As with every pairing on this site, it is a custom built on the arrangement of the branches, not a prediction.

The Snake at a glance

Branch, hour and month: Hong Kong Observatory. Pairings: folk tradition.
Earthly branchSi 巳, number 6 of 12
Fixed element of the branchFire, yin
Double hour (shichen)9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Lunar month named by the branch4th month
Triad (san he)Ox, Rooster
Harmony pair (liu he)Monkey
Opposite sign (liu chong)Pig
Harm pair (liu hai)Tiger
Next year of the Snake2037, from February 15, 2037

Every year of the Snake, with exact dates

Each line is one lunar year, from its new year to the eve of the next. Over sixty years the Snake comes back five times, once with each element: Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire. A birth before the start date in that Gregorian year belongs to the Dragon.

Lunar new year dates from the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables, read on November 1, 2026.
YearSignStem-branchStartsEnds
1929Earth SnakeJi-Si 己巳Feb 10, 1929Jan 29, 1930
1941Metal SnakeXin-Si 辛巳Jan 27, 1941Feb 14, 1942
1953Water SnakeGui-Si 癸巳Feb 14, 1953Feb 2, 1954
1965Wood SnakeYi-Si 乙巳Feb 2, 1965Jan 20, 1966
1977Fire SnakeDing-Si 丁巳Feb 18, 1977Feb 6, 1978
1989Earth SnakeJi-Si 己巳Feb 6, 1989Jan 26, 1990
2001Metal SnakeXin-Si 辛巳Jan 24, 2001Feb 11, 2002
2013Water SnakeGui-Si 癸巳Feb 10, 2013Jan 30, 2014
2025Wood SnakeYi-Si 乙巳Jan 29, 2025Feb 16, 2026
2037Fire SnakeDing-Si 丁巳Feb 15, 2037Feb 3, 2038

Questions people ask

When is the next year of the Snake?

The next year of the Snake is the Fire Snake, which begins on February 15, 2037 and ends on February 3, 2038, according to the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables. After it, the Snake returns in 2049 as a Earth Snake; the same element and animal meet again only in 2097.

When did the last year of the Snake end?

The Wood Snake year ended on February 16, 2026, according to the Hong Kong Observatory tables. The Fire Horse year began the next day, February 17, 2026. Babies born in January 2026 and in the first sixteen days of February 2026 are therefore Wood Snakes, not Horses.

Which signs does tradition pair with the Snake?

Folk tradition places the Snake in a triad with the Ox and the Rooster, counted as the warmest match, and pairs it in harmony with the Monkey. Its opposite, six years away, is the Pig, and its harm pair is the Tiger. These pairings come from the positions of the branches on a circle and predict nothing about real couples.

Check next

Sign finder

Your animal, element and lunar birth date from your exact birth date, with the January and February boundary handled.

What sign am I?

Exact birth date in, sign out, with both start-of-year rules compared for January and February birthdays.

Compatibility

Two birth dates in: each sign and element, then how folk tradition pairs them, with where the rules come from.

Elements and the 60-year cycle

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water: how each year gets its element, the 60 stem-branch names, and the benming year.

Year of the Ox

Second animal: Ox years with their exact start dates, the Metal Ox of 2021 and the Water Ox of 2033.

Year of the Rooster

Tenth animal: Rooster years with exact start dates, the Fire Rooster of 2017 and the Earth Rooster of 2029.

Tables and official pages behind this page

Written by

Independent publisher of a Chinese zodiac sign finder by exact birth date, built on the Gregorian-lunar conversion tables of the Hong Kong Observatory

Calendar tables checked on · Editorial policy · Contact

Chinese zodiac and lunar calendar 2026, dates read in the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables, last checked on