Lunar birthday calculator
In China, many families still mark birthdays by the lunar calendar, so the date moves every year on the Western calendar. Enter your Gregorian birthday and this converter gives the lunar month and day you were born on, written the traditional way (for example 正月十五, the fifteenth of the first month, which is the Lantern Festival), together with the zodiac animal and element of that lunar year. The conversion uses the astronomical lunar calendar tables, the same ones printed in Chinese almanacs.
- Year
- Element
- Yin or yang
- Earthly branch
- Hours of the animal
- Lunar birthday
- Best company
- Your next year
Make the poster
Your animal in ink, the lunar date, and your name. Add a Chinese name and it is set as a round seal.
How it works
Enter the day, month and year you were born.
Read the "Lunar birthday" line: month and day in the Chinese calendar, and any festival that falls on it.
Add your name and make a poster with the lunar date and your zodiac animal in ink.
Questions
How is the lunar date calculated?
From the astronomical new moons and solar terms that define the Chinese calendar, using the same vendored calendar library we use for the zodiac; it covers 1900 to 2100 and matches printed almanacs.
Why does my lunar birthday change every year?
A lunar month is 29 or 30 days and a lunar year has 12 or 13 of them, so the lunar date drifts against the Gregorian calendar and is corrected by a leap month every two or three years.
What is 正月?
正月 (zhēngyuè) is the first lunar month, the one that begins at Chinese New Year. 正月初一 is New Year’s Day; 正月十五 is the Lantern Festival.
Read more
- How Chinese names work: surname first, then one or two charactersA Chinese name is a one-character family name followed by a given name of one or two characters, each with a meaning. How the parts fit, how they are spoken and written, and what makes a name sound real.