Your year animal is only one of your signs. Enter your birth time and date to find your Secret Animal (the hour you were born) and your Inner Animal (the solar month). Free, instant, no sign-up.
Your Chinese zodiac hour (Secret Animal) is the zodiac animal of the two-hour block you were born in. A day is divided into twelve fixed two-hour periods, each ruled by one of the twelve earthly branches and its animal — so your birth time gives you a second zodiac sign beyond your birth year. Enter your birth time and date below to find your Secret Animal (hour) and Inner Animal (solar month) instantly, free.
From our Saju engine: the twelve blocks each span exactly 120 minutes and together cover all 24 hours with no gaps. The Rat (Zi) hour is the only block that crosses midnight, running 23:00 to 01:00.
Your hour and month animals are two of the four signs in your chart. Your full Korean Saju reads all four pillars — year, month, day and hour — together with the balance of the Five Elements and your ten-year luck cycles. CheonMyeongDang reads the whole chart for a personalized analysis.
Get your full Saju reading →Every one of the twelve zodiac animals rules both a two-hour block of the day (your Secret Animal) and a solar month of the year (your Inner Animal). This is the full earthly-branch reference the calculator above draws on — the fixed hour blocks never change, and each branch carries a fixed Five-Element.
| Animal | Earthly branch | Hour block | Solar month | Fixed element | Traditional trait |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rat 鼠 | Zi 子 | 23:00–01:00 | Dec 7 – Jan 5 | Water 水 | Resourceful, quick-thinking |
| Ox 牛 | Chou 丑 | 01:00–03:00 | Jan 6 – Feb 3 | Earth 土 | Steady, patient |
| Tiger 虎 | Yin 寅 | 03:00–05:00 | Feb 4 – Mar 5 | Wood 木 | Bold, instinctive |
| Rabbit 兔 | Mao 卯 | 05:00–07:00 | Mar 6 – Apr 4 | Wood 木 | Gentle, watchful |
| Dragon 龍 | Chen 辰 | 07:00–09:00 | Apr 5 – May 5 | Earth 土 | Confident, driven |
| Snake 蛇 | Si 巳 | 09:00–11:00 | May 6 – Jun 5 | Fire 火 | Private, intuitive |
| Horse 馬 | Wu 午 | 11:00–13:00 | Jun 6 – Jul 6 | Fire 火 | Restless, free-spirited |
| Goat 羊 | Wei 未 | 13:00–15:00 | Jul 7 – Aug 7 | Earth 土 | Tender, imaginative |
| Monkey 猴 | Shen 申 | 15:00–17:00 | Aug 8 – Sep 7 | Metal 金 | Clever, playful |
| Rooster 雞 | You 酉 | 17:00–19:00 | Sep 8 – Oct 7 | Metal 金 | Sharp, observant |
| Dog 狗 | Xu 戌 | 19:00–21:00 | Oct 8 – Nov 7 | Earth 土 | Loyal, protective |
| Pig 豬 | Hai 亥 | 21:00–23:00 | Nov 8 – Dec 6 | Water 水 | Warm, generous |
The Rat hour begins at 23:00 and wraps midnight; the remaining eleven blocks follow in branch order every two hours. Solar-month bands begin near the 4th–8th of each Gregorian month and can shift about a day per year, so a birth within a day of a boundary may fall in the neighbouring sign. Traits describe traditional tendencies for reflection, not fixed outcomes.