1929 Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Snake

Chinese year 1929 begins on Sunday, February 10, 1929, and ends on Wednesday, January 29, 1930, the day before the Year of the Metal Horse begins. It has 354 days, or 12 lunar months: each month starts on a new moon, so it is 29 or 30 days long. The next leap year, with a thirteenth month, comes in 1930.

The year opens with the new moon on Saturday, February 9, 1929 at 12:55 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 10, 1:55 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 10.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Sunday, February 24, 1929. The year's first full moon falls on Saturday, February 23, 1929 at 1:59 p.m. ET.

It is year 6 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 己巳 (jǐsì): the heavenly stem 己 gives the element and the earthly branch 巳 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1929 begins not at the lunar New Year but at the moment of lìchūn (立春, “start of spring”), when the Sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude: on Monday, February 4, 1929 at 2:08 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 6 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 9 still has the Earth Dragon sign in the lunar calendar but already the Earth Snake sign in Ba Zi.

This page and the calculator give your sign by the lunar calendar.

The Snake is the sign of wisdom and intuition. It observes quietly, analyzes and acts only once it understands the situation well, and then it is rarely wrong.

Stability, common sense and care for the people close to you. Earth steadies every sign and makes it more realistic.

The Earth element covers two years in a row, 1928 (yang) and 1929 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1918–1919, next in 1938–1939.

The Earth Snake is the calmest of the Snakes. Earth adds good sense and patience, so it acts carefully, is rarely wrong and keeps its word. People trust it because it is predictable in the best sense. The trouble is that it analyzes longer than the situation requires and adapts to change slowly.

In 2026, people born in 1929 turn 97 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a year with no special tie for the Snake. People born in 1929 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2037, when they turn 108 years old.

The Snake comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1929, the Earth Snake, returns every 60 years: in 1869, 1929 and 1989.