Lucky numbers
2 8 9
Most recent year
2025
Branch position
6
The snake in the cycle
The Year of the Snake is the sixth year of the twelve-year Chinese zodiac cycle, covering 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025 and 2037. Its branch is 巳 (sì), fixed element Fire, polarity yin. In Chinese the snake is often called 小龙 (xiǎo lóng), little dragon, which places it just behind the Dragon in standing as well as in sequence. The 2025 Snake year opened on 29 January, so a birth on 20 January 2025 still falls under the Dragon.
巳 is the sixth of the twelve earthly branches, covering the double hour from 9am to 11am and the first month of summer. In the usual telling of the Jade Emperor's race the Snake had no speed to offer, so it coiled around one of the Horse's hooves and stayed hidden the whole way. At the finish it uncoiled, the Horse shied, and the Snake took sixth place ahead of the animal it had ridden in on.
The branch's Fire is fixed. The year's element is not, and it turns on a ten-year cycle keyed to the last digit of the Gregorian year: 4 or 5 Wood, 6 or 7 Fire, 8 or 9 Earth, 0 or 1 Metal, 2 or 3 Water. So 2025 was a Wood Snake, 2013 a Water Snake, and 1977 a Fire Snake with the branch's own element repeated. Anyone born in January or the first half of February should check that year's lunar new year date before assuming which animal applies.
- 蛇 · shé
- 6 of 12
- Fire
- Yin
- 2, 8, 9
- 1, 6, 7
- Black, Red, Yellow
- Orchid, Cactus
- East, West, Southwest
- Taurus — unrelated systems, see below
Snake years, and the date each one starts
1929
from 10 Feb
1941
from 27 Jan
1953
from 14 Feb
1965
from 2 Feb
1977
from 18 Feb
1989
from 6 Feb
2001
from 24 Jan
2013
from 10 Feb
2025
from 29 Jan
2037
from 15 Feb
Each snake year runs from the date shown until the day before the next lunar new year. Born on 10 January 2025? You are not a snake; that year had not started yet. The full year table covers 1924 to 2044 if you need to check a different year.
What the tradition says about snake people
Chinese astrology reads Snake people as intelligent, private and strategic, the sign that works a problem out in silence and announces the answer once. The tradition ties the branch to wisdom rather than quickness, and credits Snake people with reading a situation faster than they let on. Almanacs describe them as good communicators who choose to say very little, and as unusually determined once a goal is set, with a strong dislike of losing.
That reserve is also the complaint. Traditional readings describe Snake people as hard to know, slow to trust, and inclined to keep their reasoning to themselves long after the decision has been made for everyone else. The same sources mention jealousy and a long memory for a slight. Almanacs suggest that what looks like calm from outside is often calculation, and that a Snake will not tell you which it was. That is a portrait of a sign, not a diagnosis of a person.
Why 2, 8, 9
The Snake's numbers are 2, 8 and 9, along with combinations built from them such as 28 and 89. Each has a linguistic root. Two is lucky through 好事成双 (hǎo shì chéng shuāng), good things come in pairs, which is why Chinese wedding gifts and door decorations arrive in twos. Eight is the strongest of the three: 八 (bā) sits close to 發 (fā), to prosper, and the pull is harder still in Cantonese, where the two rhyme more exactly.
Nine works on the same principle. 九 (jiǔ) is a homophone of 久 (jiǔ), long-lasting, and that is the reason it turns up at weddings and throughout imperial architecture, most famously in the nine rows of nine studs on the great doors of the Forbidden City. Set against those, the Snake's unlucky numbers are given as 1, 6 and 7. Six is the awkward entry, since 六 (liù) echoes 溜 (liū), smooth, and counts as auspicious nearly everywhere else. These lists exclude it for the Snake without saying why. Other publishers land somewhere else entirely, and chinesenewyear.net gives the Snake 1 and 8 rather than 2, 8 and 9.
Lucky
2 8 9
Chinese number luck runs largely on homophones. 八 bā (8) sits close to 發 fā, to prosper; 四 sì (4) sits close to 死 sǐ, death. The Chinese numbers page works through the whole set.
Snake compatibility
Snake at work and in love
Snake — work and money
Traditional career lists for the Snake favour work that rewards analysis over volume. The standard set names scientist, analyst, investigator and dietician, alongside painter, potter and jeweller, trades where a small thing done precisely is the entire product. Astrologer and magician appear on the same lists, which is less of a joke than it looks. The tradition ties this branch to hidden knowledge and to people who hold information other people do not.
At work, almanacs describe a Snake as the person who has already thought three steps ahead and has not mentioned it. Good judgement, difficult teamwork, and the older readings say so plainly. Their advice is to explain the reasoning out loud, because a decision that arrives fully formed gets resisted even when it is right. Snake readings also warn against carrying more than one demanding project at a time.
Snake — love and family
Chinese astrology describes the Snake as a slow starter in love and intensely loyal afterwards, with a possessive streak the almanacs do not soften. The tradition says a Snake watches before committing and rarely explains what it is watching for. Once settled, the same sources describe a partner who notices everything, remembers everything, and is hard to reassure once a suspicion has taken hold. They also warn a partner not to read silence as indifference.
The Snake's trine (三合) is Ox and Rooster, the branches four places away in each direction: 巳酉丑, the Metal group. Branches spaced four apart are read as working toward the same end from different angles, which is what makes a trine a trine. The clash (六冲) is the Pig, six places away and therefore directly opposite on the twelve-point circle, 巳 against 亥. Opposite branches sit at opposite hours and opposite compass points, and the tradition treats the pairing as friction to manage.
The Taurus question
Charts that pair the snake with Taurus are matching the snake's earthly branch to the solar month it governs in the traditional calendar. That is a real correspondence inside Chinese timekeeping. It is not a claim that the two astrologies agree, because they were built in different places for different purposes and neither borrowed from the other. Treat it as a curiosity rather than a second opinion on your western sign.
Year of the Snake — frequently asked
Yes. It ran from 29 January 2025 to 16 February 2026, and it was a Wood Snake year.
Chinese sources list 2, 8 and 9, plus numbers built from them such as 28 and 89. The set to avoid is given as 1, 6 and 7. These are traditional correspondences and they change the odds of nothing, a lottery draw included.
小龙 (xiǎo lóng) is a common Chinese nickname for the snake. It reflects the resemblance between the two animals and the fact that 巳 follows 辰 directly in the cycle, so the name reads as a compliment rather than a diminutive.
The trine is Ox and Rooster, four branches away in each direction. The clash is the Pig, six branches away and directly opposite. Compatibility here is a rule about where the branches sit, not an observation about people.
本命年 (běn mìng nián), the year your own animal comes round, is traditionally treated as unsettled rather than fortunate. The countermeasure is red: red cord, red socks, red underwear, usually given by an older relative instead of bought for yourself. For Snakes that was 2025, and it returns in 2037.