1989 Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Snake

Chinese year 1989 begins on Monday, February 6, 1989, and ends on Friday, January 26, 1990, the day before the Year of the Metal Horse begins. It has 355 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 1990.

The year opens with the new moon on Monday, February 6, 1989 at 2:37 a.m. ET, which is 3:37 p.m. China Standard Time, so the date is the same in New York and in Beijing.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Monday, February 20, 1989. The year's first full moon falls on Monday, February 20, 1989 at 10:32 a.m. ET. The total lunar eclipse takes place at this same full moon.

It is year 6 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 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 1989 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 Friday, February 3, 1989 at 3:27 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 3 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 5 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, 1988 (yang) and 1989 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1978–1979, next in 1998–1999.

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 1989 turn 37 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 1989 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2037, when they turn 48 years old.

The Snake comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1989, the Earth Snake, returns every 60 years: in 1929, 1989 and 2049.