60-year cycle

Why the cycle is sixty years long

There are twelve animals and five elements, but each element holds for two years in a row, one yang and one yin. The least common multiple of 12 and 10 is 60, so each combination of animal and element repeats once every sixty years.

This is the jiazi, the traditional Chinese unit for counting time. In Chinese culture sixty years is seen as a full circle of life, and a 60th birthday is celebrated in a special way.

The 60-year table

If you were born in January or early February, use the previous row: the Chinese year begins around February 4. The calculator takes this into account automatically.

How to read a row

The animal sets the character, and the element colors it. For example, the Horse is always on the move, but the Fire Horse of 2026 is restlessness on display, while the Earth Horse of 1978 is the same restlessness grounded in solidity.

Yang or yin polarity depends on whether the year is even or odd: the first year of each pair is yang, the second is yin. In practice this distinction is subtler than the element, and popular horoscopes usually leave it out.

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