April Zodiac Signs: Aries and Taurus

April: Aries until the Sun enters Taurus. In US Eastern Time the change fell on April 19 in 37 years, April 20 in 50 years (birth years 1940-2026, JPL Horizons); on those days the sign depends on the year and time of birth.

April at a glance

• Signs: Aries → Taurus
• Change days (ET): see the table below
• Elements: Fire (Aries) → Earth (Taurus)
• Modalities: Cardinal (Aries) → Fixed (Taurus)
• Rulers: Mars and Venus

On 28 of April's 30 days the calendar alone gives the April zodiac sign. April 19 and 20 are the two that need more: first the birth year, and then, if the change fell on that day, the time of birth.

The same instant can carry different dates across the country: a change in the first hour after midnight in New York is still the evening before in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, and a change late in the New York evening already falls on the following date in UTC.

Aries began in March, around March 19–21 in US Eastern Time, so April keeps only its closing stretch: April 1 through 18 in every birth year, then April 19, which is Aries either all day or up to the change, and in the years when the change came on April 20, the early part of that day too.

Fire, the element of Aries, is described as hot, dry and ardent, and Aries shares it with Leo and Sagittarius in the Fire triplicity. Its modality, Cardinal, comes from the season, since Aries is the first sign of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the first of autumn in the Southern. Astrology connects Cardinal with action. Its polarity is positive, the active side of the zodiac.

Astrology is an interpretive tradition, not a scientifically validated method, so the Aries and Taurus readings below are the tradition's account of each sign and say nothing certain about a particular person born in April. Mars rules Aries, and astrology ties the planet to sports, competitions and physical activity in general. Next to ardent Fire, the tradition reads Aries as a sign whose heat looks for an outlet in movement itself: a run, a hike, an hour at the gym; the Aries zodiac sign page goes further.

Taurus starts on April 19 or April 20 and runs on into May, ending when the Sun moves into Gemini around May 20–21 in US Eastern Time. April gets the sign's first part: April 21 through 30 in every year, the hours after the change, and all of April 20 in the years when the change came a day earlier.

Taurus is an Earth sign, sharing the element with Virgo and Capricorn, and Earth is described as heavy, cold and dry. Fixed is only a label for where it sits: the middle sign of spring in the north, and of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Its polarity is negative, the receptive side. Not everything turns over in late April: Aries and Taurus are each a sign of northern spring, and dry is a word the classical lists give to Fire and to Earth. The switch changes the element, Cardinal becomes Fixed, active polarity becomes receptive, and the ruler passes from Mars to Venus.

Astrology pairs Venus with the desire for pleasure, comfort and ease, and it sets the two rulers side by side: Mars as the impulse to act, Venus as the planet that tends to the overall atmosphere of a relationship. Read that way, the change moves the emphasis from the push of Mars to a Venus concern with how things feel between people and how pleasant a day can be; the Taurus zodiac sign page continues from there.

Birthdays on April 19 and 20 are popularly called "cusp" birthdays. The Sun crosses into Taurus at one moment, though, so every birth on those days happened either before that moment, in Aries, or after it, in Taurus.

Over the decades the change has swapped its usual date. Among birth years 1940–1983 it came on April 20 in 33 years and on April 19 in 11, US Eastern Time; among 1984–2026 it came on April 19 in 26 years and on April 20 in 17. For older birth years April 20 was the typical change day, while for recent ones it is April 19, and April 20 is more often Taurus from the start of the day.

The April 19 zodiac sign and April 20 zodiac sign pages each have a row for every birth year, with the Eastern and the Pacific Time of the change, which do not always share a date.

On those two days the sign comes down to year, hour and place of birth. To check with your birth time, put the birth date, time and city into the free birth chart; there is no sign-up. A chart without a time is calculated for 12:00 noon and marked as such, so for an April 19 or 20 birthday the time on the birth certificate is what to look for.

Instead of relying on a single noon position, the calculator checks for any sign changes across your entire local birth date. If the Sun, the Moon, or another planet changes sign during that local day, the result shows each possible sign for that day rather than guessing a single one.

On either side of April: March zodiac signs and May zodiac signs. The full list of months is at birthday zodiac signs.

FAQ

What zodiac sign is April? Aries for the first part of the month and Taurus for the last. April 1–18 is Aries and April 21–30 is Taurus in every birth year; on April 19 and 20 the year of birth decides, and on the change day the hour as well.

Is April 19 Aries or Taurus? In US Eastern Time it is never Taurus for the whole day. In most birth years before 1984 it stayed Aries from start to finish; since 1984 it has more often been the day the Sun entered Taurus, so the time of birth settles it.

Is April 20 Aries or Taurus? In US Eastern Time it is never Aries for the whole day. In most birth years before 1984 the Sun entered Taurus during April 20, so the hour decides; in most years since then the day was Taurus from midnight.

How this page was made

Prepared by the Astrolivo editorial team from NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data on the Sun's move from Aries into Taurus and the Wikipedia articles "Astrological sign," "Triplicity," "Astrology and the classical elements," "Planets in astrology" and "Astrology and science," and fact-checked against them. The descriptions of Aries and Taurus report how astrology reads the two signs.