Chinese new year animals

what is chinese new year

Chinese New Year is the new year in the lunisolar calendar used for that festival. It falls between late January and mid-February on the Gregorian calendar. The evening before is New Year’s Eve in that calendar. The first days are the festival. The animal of the new year begins then, not at civil midnight on 1 January.

In 2026 the new year began on 17 February, a Tuesday, in the Year of the Horse. In 2027 it begins on 6 February, a Saturday, in the Year of the Goat (also called Sheep). From 3 September 2026 the next Chinese New Year is 156 days away. Fireworks, visits, and the reunion meal follow family and local custom. This page is the animal cycle, not a travel schedule for every Chinatown.

Chinese year animals are the twelve signs in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. After Pig the cycle returns to Rat. The same animal comes every twelve years. A person born in a Horse year is not a Horse in the Western monthly zodiac. The two systems do not translate month by month.

The twelve in order

Lists of Chinese year animals should keep that order. Skipping the Goat or swapping Sheep as if it were a thirteenth sign is a labelling quarrel, not a thirteenth animal. Goat and Sheep are two English words for the same sign. Pig and Boar are the same kind of quarrel. Pick one English pair and stay with it on a single page.

Rat Ox Tiger Rabbit Dragon Snake Horse Goat (Sheep) Monkey Rooster Dog Pig Personality lore attached to each animal is folklore. It is not a medical file and not a work reference. If you want the sign for a birthday, you need the lunar new year date of that year, because a January baby may still belong to the previous animal.

Chinese year 1985, 1990, and 1995

Chinese year 1985 is the Year of the Ox. That Ox year began on 20 February 1985. Anyone born from 1 January 1985 through 19 February 1985 was still in the previous year, the Rat, which had begun on 2 February 1984. A passport year of 1985 is not enough.

Chinese year 1990 is the Year of the Horse. That Horse year began on 27 January 1990. Births from 1 January 1990 through 26 January 1990 sit in the Snake year that began on 6 February 1989. Chinese year 1995 is the Year of the Pig, beginning 31 January 1995. Births in January 1995 before that date sit in the Dog year that began on 10 February 1994.

The next Horse year after 1990 in this stretch of the cycle includes 2002, 2014, and 2026. The next Ox years after 1985 include 1997, 2009, and 2021. The next Pig years after 1995 include 2007 and 2019. Add twelve to a known new-year date only after you have the lunar start, not after you have 1 January.

The animal changes at Chinese New Year, not on your Gregorian birthday cake. January is where most people get the year wrong. If two relatives born in the same numbered year argue about Ox versus Rat, check the February boundary before you check the family story. The cycle is public. The cake is not the calendar.