March Zodiac Signs: Pisces and Aries

March: Pisces until the Sun enters Aries. In US Eastern Time the change fell on March 19 in 2 years, March 20 in 73 years, March 21 in 12 years (birth years 1940-2026, JPL Horizons); on those days the sign depends on the year and time of birth.

March at a glance

• Signs: Pisces → Aries
• Change days (ET): see the table below
• Elements: Water (Pisces) → Fire (Aries)
• Modalities: Mutable (Pisces) → Cardinal (Aries)
• Rulers: Neptune (traditional: Jupiter) and Mars

To find a March birthday zodiac sign, start with the date: anything up to March 18 is Pisces and anything from March 22 on is Aries, whatever the year. In between, the birth year decides, and on the change day the hour too.

One moment can carry two calendar dates: a change within the first hour after midnight Eastern Time still lands on the evening before in the Central, Mountain and Pacific zones, and a change after 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (after 8 p.m. in years when daylight saving or 1942–1945 War Time was in effect) already belongs to the next date in UTC.

By the time March begins, Pisces has been running since around February 18–19 in US Eastern Time. The month gets the back end of the sign: March 1–18 in every year, then March 19 in almost every year (the sign changed during that day in 2 years), almost always March 20 and sometimes March 21, up to the moment of the change.

In the tradition Pisces is a Water sign, and Cancer and Scorpio complete its triplicity. The classical words for Water are cold, wet and soft. The Mutable label records where Pisces sits in the season, as the last sign of Northern Hemisphere winter and of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Its polarity is negative, also called receptive.

Astrology is an interpretive tradition, not a scientifically validated method, so take the two sign readings that follow as the tradition's view, not as a profile of people born in March. Pisces has two rulers: Neptune, assigned to it in the 20th century, and Jupiter, its ruler in classical astrology. Astrology connects Neptune with fantasies, sentimentality and the undoing of the status quo, and Jupiter with expansion, adventures and long-distance travel. Read together, the two rulers describe a sign that loosens settled arrangements and keeps looking past the everyday toward wider horizons; the Pisces zodiac sign page has the rest of its profile.

The switch on March 19, 20 or 21 is the March equinox itself, because tropical astrology starts Aries at the Sun's position at that equinox. March gets only the opening of Aries, the hours after the change and every day from March 22 to 31. The sign carries on into April and ends when the Sun reaches Taurus, around April 19–20 in US Eastern Time.

Aries belongs to Fire, with Leo and Sagittarius as the rest of the Fire triplicity, and the classical list calls Fire hot, dry and ardent. Cardinal reflects its place as the first sign of Northern Hemisphere spring, or of autumn south of the equator, and astrology ties the Cardinal modality to action. Its polarity is positive, or active. So the late-March change turns over each of these labels: Water's cold and wet give way to Fire's hot and dry, Mutable to Cardinal, receptive polarity to active, and the last sign of northern winter to the first of spring.

The rulers change as well, from Neptune and Jupiter to Mars. Astrology links Mars with passionate impulse and action, with willpower, discipline and stamina, and with sports and competitions. Set beside the Cardinal link with action, the tradition reads the sign's drive as willpower aimed at a contest or a goal; the Aries zodiac sign page follows the sign through April.

March 19, 20 and 21 are often called "cusp" birthdays. The Sun still occupies one sign at the moment of birth: the change takes place at a single instant, and the birth time shows which side of it a birth fell on.

The day that carries the change has also moved over the decades. For birth years 1940–1983 the change in US Eastern Time came on March 20 in 32 years and on March 21 in 12; for 1984–2026 it came on March 20 in 41 years and on March 19 in just 2. Every March 21 change came before 1984, so for each later birth year March 21 has been Aries from start to finish, while March 19 has begun to turn up as a change day.

On a change day three facts decide the sign: birth year, clock time and place. The March 19 zodiac sign, March 20 zodiac sign and March 21 zodiac sign pages list the birth years one at a time, in both Eastern and Pacific Time, because the calendar date of a change can differ between the coasts.

To check with your birth time, enter the date, time and city of birth in the free birth chart (no sign-up). Without a time the chart is calculated for 12:00 noon and marked as such, so the hour on the birth certificate is worth finding first.

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.

Next door on the calendar: February zodiac signs and April zodiac signs. Other months start at birthday zodiac signs.

FAQ

What zodiac sign is March? Two signs: Pisces, then Aries. Up to March 18 every birthday is Pisces and from March 22 every birthday is Aries; for March 19 through 21, look up the birth year, and on the change day itself the birth time.

Is March 20 Pisces or Aries? It can be either. In most birth years since 1940, March 20 is the day the Sun moved into Aries (Eastern Time), so the hour of birth settles it. Some birth years before 1984 kept the whole day in Pisces, and in two recent years it was Aries from midnight on.

Is March 21 Pisces or Aries? Aries, for every birth year from 1984 through 2026. Before that, March 21 was sometimes the day of the change itself, and those birthdays need the time of birth.

How this page was made

Prepared by the Astrolivo editorial team from NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data on the Sun's sign changes and the Wikipedia articles "Astrological sign," "Triplicity," "Astrology and the classical elements," "Planets in astrology" and "Astrology and science," and fact-checked against those sources. Sign readings are presented as the astrological tradition interprets them.