1929 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Earth Snake
Born in 1929? You’re an Earth Snake — but the year didn’t open until February 10, 1929. From that date it ran through to January 29, 1930.
There’s a twist worth catching at the front: Start-of-Spring landed on February 4 that year, six days before the lunar new year opened on February 10. For most of early February the two ways of dating the year point at different animals, and that short gap is the first thing we clear up below.
Born in 1929? The quick answer
Still the 1928 zodiac year, which did not close until February 9. A birthday anywhere in January or the first nine days of February 1929 lands here, in Dragon, not Snake.
The 1929 zodiac year, stem-branch 己巳. The tail matters too: a child born in the first weeks of 1930, up to January 29, is still an Earth Snake, not yet a Metal Horse.
1929 at a glance
| Detail | 1929 |
|---|---|
| Zodiac animal | Snake (蛇 shé) |
| Element | Earth (Yin) |
| Stem-branch | 己巳 (jǐ sì) |
| Exact dates | February 10, 1929 – January 29, 1930 |
| Sign before | Earth Dragon (until February 9, 1929) |
| Sign after | Metal Horse (from January 30, 1930) |
| Age in 2026 (if born during calendar year 1929) | 96 or 97 |
| Traditional allies | Ox, Rooster (trine), Monkey (six-harmony) |
| Clash sign | Pig |
Born in January or early February 1929?
On the lunar-year convention this page uses — the standard for looking up a birth-year sign — the Snake year runs from February 10, 1929 to January 29, 1930. Anyone born between January 1 and February 9, 1929 is an Earth Dragon carried over from 1928. The same rule holds at the closing end: a birth in early 1930, up to January 29, still counts as a 1929 Earth Snake rather than a Metal Horse.
A second method dates the year differently. Many BaZi practitioners use Lìchūn, the Start-of-Spring solar term, as the boundary. In 1929 Lìchūn fell on February 4, six days before the lunar new year of February 10 — both dates recorded in the Hong Kong Observatory’s 1929 almanac. So a birth from February 4 to February 9 already counts as Snake on the solar reckoning but still as the Earth Dragon on the lunar one. A full BaZi chart uses the exact moment of Lìchūn, so a date in that window needs the birth time and place, not a plain lookup. The January–February boundary guide sets both methods side by side.
What an Earth Snake actually is
“Snake” fixes the animal; the element fixes the year. The twelve animals and the five elements run on separate wheels, and the pairing of Earth with Snake comes back only once in sixty years. 1929 is written 己巳 (jǐ sì), a Yin Earth year. The stem 己 is earth in its soft form — tilled ground, the soil of a garden bed rather than the ridge or embankment of its harder counterpart. There is a second layer under it: the branch 巳 belongs to fire, and in the five-element cycle fire feeds earth, so the year’s soft earth sits on ground that fire is quietly making.
In folklore the Snake is read as the still, watchful sign — measured, private, slow to tip its hand. Earth is said to settle that watchfulness inward rather than sharpen it: patient more than secretive, holding a position rather than striking from it. Take that as the portrait tradition draws, not a verdict on anyone. Plenty of people born in 1929 match none of it.
The sixth of the sixty
The stem-branch of 1929, 己巳, sits at a tidy spot in the count. 己 is the sixth of the ten Heavenly Stems; 巳 is the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches; and 己巳 is the sixth pair in the sixty-term sexagenary cycle. Three separate counts, all landing on six. It works out that way because across the cycle’s first ten pillars the stem and the branch still climb in step — 甲子 first, then second, third, and so on — before the shorter ten-stem run resets and the two counters fall out of line. 1929 follows 1928, the fifth pillar (戊辰), by exactly one step of that shared climb.
The pillar 1929 shares with 1989
That sixth pillar is not a one-off — like every stem-branch it returns on a fixed sixty-year beat:
| Earth Snake year | Age in 2026 for calendar-year births |
|---|---|
| 1869 | A historical cohort; no longer living |
| 1929 | 96 or 97 years old |
| 1989 | 36 or 37 years old |
Someone born during the 1989 Earth Snake year carries the identical pillar to someone born during the 1929 Earth Snake year — same stem, same branch, one full sixty-year turn apart. Two births sixty years apart, one shared stem-branch: that is the kind of match the old cycle is exact enough to hold, and 1989 is the living Earth Snake year against which 1929 can be read. The Earth Snake element page follows what that pairing is traditionally said to mean.
Traditional Snake pairings
In traditional zodiac groupings, the Snake forms a three-harmony trine with the Ox and Rooster, pairs with the Monkey in six-harmony, and clashes with the Pig. These fixed animal relationships do not shift with the Earth element; the Snake compatibility guide works through each pairing in full.
The years on either side
| Year | Sign | Zodiac dates |
|---|---|---|
| 1928 | Earth Dragon | Jan 23, 1928 – Feb 9, 1929 |
| 1929 | Earth Snake | Feb 10, 1929 – Jan 29, 1930 |
| 1930 | Metal Horse | from Jan 30, 1930 |
Watch the opening date move: January 23 one year, February 10 the next, January 30 the year after. The lunar new year slides back and forth across a three-week band, which is exactly why a plain birth-year lookup so often trips around the turn of the year. The Snake animal guide collects the Snake years and follows the five elements through them.
1929 Chinese zodiac: common questions
What is the Chinese zodiac sign for 1929?
1929 is a Snake year — the Earth Snake — for anyone born on or after February 10, 1929.
What are the exact 1929 Earth Snake dates?
February 10, 1929 to January 29, 1930. Anything earlier in 1929 belongs to the Earth Dragon year of 1928.
What element is 1929 in the Chinese zodiac?
Earth. The full stem-branch name is 己巳 (jǐ sì), a Yin Earth year.
Is everyone born in 1929 an Earth Snake?
No. Births from January 1 to February 9, 1929 fall in the previous Earth Dragon year. And someone born in early 1930, up to January 29, is still a 1929 Earth Snake.
Why does Start-of-Spring fall before the new year in 1929?
Start-of-Spring came on February 4, while the lunar new year opened later, on February 10. Births from February 4 to February 9 count as Snake on the solar reckoning but as the Earth Dragon under the lunar one. A precise BaZi calculation uses the exact time of Lìchūn, so births in that window need a time-based lookup.
What years share the 1929 Earth Snake pillar?
The 己巳 Earth Snake pillar returns every sixty years: 1869, 1929 and 1989. A person born during the 1989 Earth Snake year shares the exact stem-branch with someone born during the 1929 Earth Snake year.
How old is someone born in 1929 in 2026?
96 or 97 in 2026, depending on whether their birthday has passed.
Looking this up for someone born in 1929?
A public page stops at the general facts. If what brought you here is a grandparent’s papers, a name in an old register, or a birthday you’re marking, two things carry further than a page like this can:
Where to go next
Editorial note
The calendar side of this page — the February 10, 1929 start, the January 29, 1930 close, the February 4 Start of Spring, and the 己巳 (jǐ sì) stem-branch — can be checked against the Hong Kong Observatory almanac or any sexagenary table. Everything about character, compatibility and fortune is symbolic tradition, shared for cultural interest. It is not a prediction, and it is not medical, financial or relationship advice.