Let’s take someone born on 31st Jan 1979. Is this person born under the Chinese zodiac sign of the horse or goat? Not sure?
The confusion arises because the Chinese uses two popular calendar systems, the solar as well as the lunar calendar. They are also known as the LuniSolar or YinYang Calendar. The first day of the solar calendar starts on or around the 4th Feb every year in conjunction with the Start of Spring while the first day of the lunar calendar can start between late January and late February. Click on the calendar links above to find out why it is so.
From a Chinese Solar Calendar perspective, someone born on the 31st Jan 1979 belongs to the previous year animal sign (Horse) as the current year animal sign (Goat) only takes effect on the 4th Feb. However from a Chinese Lunar Calendar perspective, this person is most definitely a Goat as the Chinese Lunar New Year started on 28th Jan 1979.
Why is this important? In many Chinese metaphysics study such as Chinese Astrology and Feng Shui, we need to know the yearly zodiac sign.
Most system of Feng Shui such as the Eight Mansions and Flying Stars uses the Chinese Solar Calendar. So does Ba Zi, a popular system of Chinese Astrology.
On the other hand, Zi Wei Dou Shu, a less popular but also highly accurate system of Chinese Astrology uses the Chinese Lunar Calendar exclusively.
What can go wrong if we use the wrong animal sign? A lot.
For example if you use the Eight Mansions Feng Shui system and you get the animal sign and year wrong, you could end up sleeping in all the wrong directions. Liu Sha (Six Killings) or Jue Ming (End of Life) instead of Sheng Qi (Living Breathe) or Tian Yi (Heavenly Doctor)!
It can get far worse if you say use Zi Wei Dou Shu for compatibility analysis. If you get the animal sign wrong, it can be the difference between highly compatible and not compatible at all!
It pays to be sure which calendar system you should use.
You can find out the first day of every year for each of the calendars by using the Ten Thousand Year Calendar reference book or via my on-line Ten Thousand Year Calendar.
