Chinese zodiac 2023
Year of the Water Rabbit
22 January 2023 to 9 February 2024
Born in 2023? Your sign depends on the day
The animal changes at Lunar New Year, not on 1 January. In 2023 it falls on 22 January 2023.
- 22 January to 31 December 2023
- 🐇 Water Rabbit
- and on to 9 Feb 2024
Check an exact birth date
The Water Rabbit at a glance
Animal
🐇 Rabbit
Said to be gentle, elegant, careful.
Element
水 Yin Water
Linked with wisdom and flexibility. Each element rules two years in a row.
Length
384 days
A long year: the calendar adds a thirteenth, leap month.
Other Rabbit years
The 60-year cycle
Animal and element line up again only every 60 years. The Water Rabbit years nearest to this one are 1963 and 2083.
Who gets on with the Rabbit
Allies
Four years apart. The three animals of a trine are said to share a temperament.
Secret friend
One of six fixed pairs said to complement each other.
Opposite
Six years apart, directly across the wheel. Tradition calls this the hardest pairing.
Friction
One of six fixed pairs said to rub each other the wrong way.
Bonds come from each animal's position among the twelve, as tradition sets them. They describe the Rabbit sign in general, not any one person.
Dates are computed estimates from the Hong Kong Observatory's calendar tables, counted in China's time zone. Some traditions change the animal at the start of spring (around 4 February) instead of at Lunar New Year.