Year of the Snake in the Chinese Zodiac: Cycle Order, Verified Dates, and Five Elements
By Astrolivo Editorial Team
The Snake (si) is the sixth animal in the twelve-year Chinese zodiac cycle, coming immediately after the Dragon and before the Horse. In the traditional Chinese sexagenary (sixty-year) calendar, the sixth earthly branch (si) combines with a heavenly stem to create specific year designations such as Ji-si, Xin-si, Gui-si, and Yi-si.
Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar—tracking both lunar phases and the solar year—a Snake year begins on Lunar New Year rather than January 1. Depending on the year, Lunar New Year falls in January or February. Birth dates in January or February that precede the Lunar New Year cutoff belong to the prior Dragon year under civil calendar rules.
Verified Snake Years and Exact Date Boundaries
The table below presents verified Snake years from the official Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-lunar conversion tables. This table is non-exhaustive: it displays only the verified example years included in our current reference dataset, not every Snake year in history.
| Gregorian Year Label | Stem-Branch Header | Element | Lunar New Year (Start Date) | End Date (Last Day of Lunar Year) | Preceding Animal (Before Start Date) | Year Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Ji-si | Earth | February 6, 1989 | January 26, 1990 | Dragon | 1989 Earth Snake |
| 2001 | Xin-si | Metal | January 24, 2001 | February 11, 2002 | Dragon | 2001 Metal Snake |
| 2013 | Gui-si | Water | February 10, 2013 | January 30, 2014 | Dragon | 2013 Water Snake |
| 2025 | Yi-si | Wood | January 29, 2025 | February 16, 2026 | Dragon | 2025 Wood Snake |
How to Verify a Birth Date and Use Year Detail Links
To check whether a birth date belongs to one of the verified Snake years listed above, compare the full date (month, day, and year) against the Lunar New Year (Start Date) and End Date columns:
- Hypothetical example (early February before the cutoff): Consider a person born on February 3, 2013. Because the 2013 Gui-si Snake year started on February 10, 2013, a birth date of February 3, 2013 falls within the final week of the preceding 2012 Water Dragon year.
- Hypothetical example (on or after the cutoff, or early in the following Gregorian year): Consider a person born on January 29, 2025, or on February 10, 2026. Both dates lie inside the verified range from January 29, 2025 through February 16, 2026, placing them in the 2025 Wood Snake year (just before the 2026 Fire Horse begins on February 17, 2026).
Select any link in the Year Guide column above to open the dedicated reference page for that specific year, or visit the Chinese zodiac overview to explore all twelve animal branches.
Place in the Twelve-Year and Sixty-Year Cycles
In the traditional twelve-animal sequence—Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig—the Snake is sixth, corresponding to the earthly branch si.
Alongside the twelve branches, the Chinese calendar cycles through ten heavenly stems (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui), creating sixty unique stem-branch combinations that repeat every sixty years (with the recent cycle anchored by Jia-zi on February 2, 1984). In standard five-element (wu xing) nomenclature, the ten stems map to five phases:
- Wood: Jia and Yi
- Fire: Bing and Ding
- Earth: Wu and Ji
- Metal: Geng and Xin
- Water: Ren and Gui
Because the sixth branch (si) pairs with the Yin stems (Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin, Gui) as the sexagenary cycle advances, consecutive Snake years shift through the five elements in order. In our verified table, 1989 (Ji-si) is an Earth Snake year, 2001 (Xin-si) is a Metal Snake year, 2013 (Gui-si) is a Water Snake year, and 2025 (Yi-si) is a Wood Snake year.
Cultural Tradition and Interpretive Boundaries
Museum and historical records show that pairing years with twelve animals has deep roots in Chinese history, appearing in Han-period texts and Tang-dynasty funerary figures. Originally, the cycle served as a practical calendar-naming system for recording years and dates. Well-known stories about how the animals earned their order—such as the folk tale of a great race—are cultural folklore rather than historical events.
Modern horoscopes often attach fixed personality traits, lucky numbers, or relationship compatibility lists to the Snake, but these are symbolic cultural interpretations rather than scientifically validated psychological facts. When using this reference, note the following distinctions:
- HKO Civil Calendar vs. Four Pillars (BaZi): The dates on this page reflect Lunar New Year in the Hong Kong Observatory civil calendar. In traditional Four Pillars (BaZi) astrology, the annual pillar typically transitions at Li Chun (the solar term for the start of spring) rather than Lunar New Year, and the year pillar is interpreted alongside month, day, and hour pillars. This table is a civil calendar lookup, not a BaZi chart calculation.
- Lunisolar Cycle vs. Western Astrology: A Chinese zodiac animal marks an entire lunisolar year, whereas a Western Sun sign reflects which tropical zodiac sector the Sun occupied on a specific birth date.
- No Predictive Guarantees: Traditional calendar symbols do not predict future events or provide medical, legal, or financial advice.
Methodology and Sources
All calendar headers, stem-branch names, and start/end dates in the table above are verified against the official Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables and the HKO guide to Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches (anchored to the 1984 Jia-zi year). The correspondence between heavenly stems and the five elements (wu xing) is sourced from Yoo & Yoon (2019, Journal of Korean Medical Classics, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017 abstract), used solely for traditional stem-element classification without importing medical theories or personality claims. Historical context on the twelve-animal order, Han and Tang artifacts, lunisolar mechanics, and folklore versus history is drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum (The Lunar Zodiac, updated April 17, 2024) and Royal Museums Greenwich (Lunar New Year dates and animals of the zodiac).
Frequently Asked Questions
Are 1989, 2001, 2013, and 2025 the only Snake years?
No. Snake years occur every twelve years in the Chinese calendar. The table on this page is a non-exhaustive reference containing only the verified HKO conversion table rows provided in our current dataset.
Which zodiac animal applies to someone born in early January 1990?
A birth date between January 1, 1990 and January 26, 1990 falls before the 1990 Metal Horse Lunar New Year (which began on January 27, 1990). Under the civil lunar calendar, dates up to and including January 26, 1990 belong to the 1989 Earth Snake year.
Why doesn't this page list Snake compatibility or personality traits?
Our verified sources—astronomical observatories, museum collections, and calendar history scholarship—document the calendar structure, stem-branch naming, and historical background of the lunar zodiac. They do not support fixed personality claims, compatibility scores, or fortune-telling forecasts, so we keep this guide focused on verifiable calendar facts.