Chinese zodiac
Snake
Snake — Si, the 6th of the twelve earthly branches. It comes round every twelve years, each time with the next of the five elements, so the same animal and element meet again every sixty years.
In Chinese the Snake is often called the little dragon (xiaolong), and a Snake year is sometimes described that way. In one widely told version of the race, the Snake arrives hidden on the Horse's hoof and startles it at the line, which is how it comes to finish sixth and the Horse seventh.
The Snake's earthly branch
The branch, Si (巳), is older than the Snake and names more than a year: it is also one of the twelve double hours of the traditional day, a month of the Chinese solar year and a point of the compass.
- Branch
- Si 巳The 6th of twelve. The animal is written 蛇.
- Polarity
- YinPaired only with the yin stems, so every Snake year starts in an odd-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- FireThe Snake's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 09:00–11:00Read today off the local clock. Traditionally kept by the sun, so noon fell in the middle of the Horse's double hour.
- Solar month opens
- 5 May 2026At Lixia, Start of Summer, when the sun reaches 45°. Beijing time, that has been 5 or 6 May in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 150°Between east and south, counting clockwise from the Rat at due north.
- Triad
- Ox, Snake, RoosterThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Metal.
- Opposite
- PigSix places on: the opposite hour, month and bearing.
The hours, bearings, triads and branch elements are the standard correspondences of the earthly branches. The month dates are worked out here from the sun's position, on the Beijing calendar, for every year from 1920 to 2026. What the solar terms are →
A January or early-February birthday can belong to the year before
The Year of the Snake does not begin on 1 January. In 2025 it began on 29 January. A baby born on 1 January 2025 — before that date — would be a Dragon, not a Snake.
The new year falls between 21 January and 20 February, and until it arrives the previous animal is still in charge. Each year's own date is in the table below.
Every year of the Snake since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1929 | 10 February | Earth Snake |
| 1941 | 27 January | Metal Snake |
| 1953 | 14 February | Water Snake |
| 1965 | 2 February | Wood Snake |
| 1977 | 18 February | Fire Snake |
| 1989 | 6 February | Earth Snake |
| 2001 | 24 January | Metal Snake |
| 2013 | 10 February | Water Snake |
| 2025 | 29 January | Wood Snake |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Wood Snake — is sixty years apart.