1953 Chinese zodiac sign: Water Snake

Chinese year 1953 begins on Saturday, February 14, 1953, and ends on Tuesday, February 2, 1954, the day before the Year of the Wood 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 1955.

The year opens with the new moon on Friday, February 13, 1953 at 8:10 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 14, 9:10 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 14. The partial solar eclipse takes place at this same new moon.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Saturday, February 28, 1953. The year's first full moon falls on Saturday, February 28, 1953 at 1:59 p.m. ET.

It is year 30 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 癸巳 (guǐsì): the heavenly stem 癸 gives the element and the earthly branch 巳 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1953 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 Tuesday, February 3, 1953 at 9:46 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 11 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 13 still has the Water Dragon sign in the lunar calendar but already the Water 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.

Intuition, flexibility and a gift for persuasion. Water softens a sign and teaches it to go with the flow.

The Water element covers two years in a row, 1952 (yang) and 1953 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1942–1943, next in 1962–1963.

The Water Snake sees more than others do. Water deepens its insight and its ability to read people, so it is rarely fooled, and it is good with money too. It is calm, wise and thoughtful. Still, it lets very few people close, and trust doesn't come easily.

In 2026, people born in 1953 turn 73 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 1953 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2037, when they turn 84 years old.

The Snake comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1953, the Water Snake, returns every 60 years: in 1893, 1953 and 2013.