Is 2030 the Year of the Dog or the Rooster?
Both occur within Gregorian 2030. Through February 2 it is still Earth Rooster by the lunar-year rule. Metal Dog starts February 3.
2030 Chinese zodiac · two adjacent boundaries
2030 Chinese Zodiac: Why February 3 and February 4 Both Matter
For this site's lunar-year zodiac, the Metal Dog begins February 3, 2030. A Gregorian birthday from January 1 through February 2 is still Earth Rooster. The Hong Kong Observatory marks Start of Spring on February 4; a Four Pillars chart that uses that marker answers a different year-pillar question. Our birthday checker uses Lunar New Year, not Start of Spring.
Check a 2030 birthday
Enter a Gregorian birth date. The answer and the rule appear below; the date stays in your browser.
This checks the lunar-year animal and year-stem element only. It does not calculate a birth-hour animal, BaZi year pillar, historical time zone, or true solar time.
The one-day gap between the two markers
In 2030 the order is unusual: Lunar New Year is labeled February 3, then Start of Spring is labeled February 4 in the Observatory's calendar. A birthday on February 3 is therefore Metal Dog by this site's lunar-year rule, even though a spring-start chart may still use the preceding year pillar before its solar-term transition. Do not treat a date-only label as the exact transition instant for a time-based chart.
This reverses the order shown in our 2029 guide, where Start of Spring comes before Lunar New Year. A calculator that hides its year-boundary rule can appear to disagree even when both calculations are internally consistent.
Four birthdays around the change
| Gregorian birthday | Lunar-year answer | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2030 | Earth Rooster | The 2029 lunar year continues. |
| February 2, 2030 | Earth Rooster | Last day before lunar month one. |
| February 3, 2030 | Metal Dog | First day of the 2030 lunar year. |
| February 4, 2030 | Metal Dog | After Lunar New Year; Start of Spring is separately marked on this date. |
Across February 2–3, both parts of the simplified year label change: the animal goes Rooster → Dog and the year-stem element goes Earth → Metal. A Gregorian-year-only lookup mislabels the January and early-February birthdays. The year and element chart gives the surrounding years.
Quick answers
What type of Dog is 2030?
The Observatory labels 2030 Geng-xu, the Metal Dog year. This is a year label, not a complete personal element reading.
What if I was born February 3, 2030?
Our lunar-year calculator returns Metal Dog. If a BaZi chart differs, check whether it uses the February 4 Start of Spring marker and what birth time and location it applied.
Does February 4 change my zodiac animal again?
No. Under the lunar-year rule used here, the animal changed on February 3. February 4 is a separate solar-term marker used in some year-pillar systems.
Watch the two dates
Video fact source: Hong Kong Observatory 2030 calendar.
Method and sources
We read the Observatory's 2030 Gregorian–lunar conversion table for the February 3 lunar-year start and February 4 Start of Spring date. Its 2029 table identifies the preceding Ji-you Rooster year. The Observatory's note about year conventions explains why some fortune tellers choose Start of Spring. This page accepts only Gregorian 2030 birthdays and makes no time-of-day or location-based Four Pillars claim.