Your two Korean zodiac animals
Black Rabbit year, White Ox day
This is not a black rabbit. It is a rabbit of a 癸 (water) year.
See it as a table
| Rule | Stem-branch | Animal |
|---|---|---|
| Year · by Ipchun | 계묘 癸卯 | Black Rabbit |
| Year · by Lunar New Year | 계묘 癸卯 | Black Rabbit |
| Day (day pillar) | 신축 辛丑 | White Ox |
More numbers
Born in Korea with the same two animals ≈ 3,698 people (≈ 1 in 60)
Next Rabbit year 2035 (Blue Rabbit) · next Black Rabbit year 2083
How it is computed (R1–R7)
In Korea the zodiac year changes either at Ipchun (the start of spring, about Feb 4, used in saju) or at Seollal (Lunar New Year). Most birthdays get the same animal either way; some Jan–Feb birthdays don't. Korea counts 亥 as the Pig (돼지).
R1 Time: the birthday is read as Korean civil time, including the +8:30 standard time of 1908–1911 and 1954–1961 and daylight-saving years. A time only matters on Ipchun day.
R2 Year by Ipchun: born after that year's Ipchun moment (Sun at ecliptic longitude 315°) → that year's stem-branch; before → the previous year's. On Ipchun day without a time both animals are shown; from 4 minutes before to 5 minutes after the moment both stay shown even with a time. Ipchun minutes for 2021–2028 are KASI's published values; other years are our calculation (marked “calc.”).
R3 Year by Lunar New Year: the new stem-branch starts on lunar January 1 (Seollal), as in KASI's lunar calendar. Shown only where KASI has data: Jan 31, 1900 to Dec 31, 2050.
R4 Day: the day pillar is the stem-branch of the day, a 60-day cycle, taken from the civil date (midnight to midnight). It matches KASI's day label.
R5 Colour: the first character (heavenly stem) gives one of five elements and its colour: 甲乙 wood blue, 丙丁 fire red, 戊己 earth yellow, 庚辛 metal white, 壬癸 water black. The second character (earthly branch) gives the animal.
R6 Same two animals: people born in Korea in the same Ipchun year (Ipchun day to the day before the next) on days with your day pillar. There are no daily statistics, so each day counts as its month's births ÷ days in the month (1970–1980: the year ÷ days). Hence “≈”. Available for 1970–2025.
R7 Next year: the nearest year after the current Ipchun year with your year animal, and the nearest with the same colour too (a 60-year cycle).
Checked against KASI: 60 random dates, day pillar and lunar-year label matched 60 of 60 (2026-11-14).
Sources (S1–S11)
- S1 한국천문연구원 천문우주정보 「달력자료」 checked 2026-11-14
KASI's published Ipchun minutes (KST) for 2021–2028. - S2 astronomy-engine (태양 황경 315° 계산, 1900~2100) checked 2026-11-14
Ipchun moments for all other years; 192 of 192 solar terms in 2021–2028 agree with S1 within one minute. - S3 한국천문연구원 음양력 변환 (일진 · 세차) checked 2026-11-14
Day pillar and lunar-year label; 60 random dates matched 60 of 60. - S4 한국천문연구원 음양력 자료 (설날 1900~2050) checked 2026-11-14
Solar dates of lunar January 1. - S5 한국천문연구원 음양력 자료의 세차 표기 checked 2026-11-14
The lunar-year label follows Seollal; the saju year pillar follows Ipchun. - S6 『淮南子』 「天文訓」 (維基文庫) checked 2026-11-14
Stems and elements: 甲乙 wood, 丙丁 fire, 戊己 earth, 庚辛 metal, 壬癸 water. - S7 蕭吉 『五行大義』 卷三 「論配五色」 (維基文庫) checked 2026-11-14
Elements and colours: wood blue-green, fire red, earth yellow, metal white, water black. - S8 정책브리핑 korea.kr · 천진기 「길몽과 재복의 돼지…‘2019 황금돼지 해’」 (2018-12-31) checked 2026-11-14
Korean usage of zodiac colours (the five pig years). - S9 코메디닷컴 · 이성주 「청마의 해는 어느 날 출발할까요?」 (2014-01-28) press report checked 2026-11-14
A scholar's view that Ipchun is the first day of the zodiac year. - S10 국가데이터처 「인구동향조사」 KOSIS 출생아 수 (월별 1981.01~2026.08, 연간 1970~2025) checked 2026-11-13
Births, for the same-pair estimate. 2026 figures are provisional. - S11 IANA tzdata 2026a (Asia/Seoul) checked 2026-11-14
Historical Korean offsets (+8:30) and daylight-saving years.
Data: Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) for Ipchun, Lunar New Year and day pillars; Statistics Korea KOSIS for births. Illustration: AI-generated (Gemini), edited by plusbeauxjours. Colours, seals and words are drawn by code from the computed values.
Good to know
Zodiac year and day pillar are calendar arithmetic. This page says nothing about personality or fortune.
The date you pick is used only inside this browser. Nothing is stored and analytics never gets the date. A link you send carries the date, nothing else.
Questions
Does the Korean zodiac year change at Ipchun or at Lunar New Year?
Both rules are in use. Saju (four pillars) starts the year at Ipchun, the start of spring around February 4. The lunar calendar starts it at Seollal, Lunar New Year. KASI's lunar-calendar data labels the year from Seollal; one Korean scholar quoted in the press (Kim Il-gwon, 2014) says Ipchun is the first day. We found no official source naming one of them correct, so this page shows both.
Why do some January and February birthdays get two animals?
Because the two change-over days fall on different dates. For 2027, Ipchun is February 4 at 10:46 KST and Seollal is February 7. A baby born on February 5 is a Red Sheep by Ipchun and still a Red Horse by Lunar New Year. January 1 changes nothing.
Where do the colours come from?
From the first character of the year's name, the heavenly stem, which belongs to one of five elements: wood is blue, fire is red, earth is yellow, metal is white, water is black. That is why 2019 (己亥, earth) was called the Golden Pig year in Korea. Korea counts 亥 as the Pig (돼지), not the boar.
What is the day animal?
Days have the same 60 names as years, in a 60-day cycle. The name of your birth day is the day pillar in saju; its second character gives the animal and its first the colour. October 10, 2023 was 辛丑, a White Ox day.
Why does the page ask for a birth time only on Ipchun day?
The year animal changes at one exact moment. Only if you were born on that very day can the time change the answer. Within about five minutes of the moment the page keeps both animals, because published tables round to the minute.
Zodiac year and day pillar are calendar arithmetic. This page says nothing about personality or fortune. · Last updated 2026-11-14