Does a February 29 birthday have no Chinese zodiac sign?
No. Enter the actual birth date, including February 29. The 2024 result is Dragon.
A leap-day birthday · one lunar-year boundary
February 29, 2024 Chinese Zodiac: Dragon or Rabbit?
A person born on February 29, 2024 is a Dragon by this calculator's Lunar New Year rule. The Hong Kong Observatory's 2024 conversion table marks February 10 as the first day of the Jia-chen Dragon lunar year. Leap day falls 19 Gregorian days later. The extra Gregorian date does not start a new zodiac year.
Five dates around leap day
This is a check of the site's date rule against the official table, not a five-animal sequence. The animal changes once at the lunar-year boundary and stays the same across February 29.
| Gregorian birth date | Position relative to February 10 | Result here |
|---|---|---|
| February 9, 2024 | One day before the 2024 lunar year | Rabbit (previous lunar year) |
| February 10, 2024 | First day of the 2024 lunar year | Dragon |
| February 28, 2024 | After the boundary | Dragon |
| February 29, 2024 | Leap day; after the boundary | Dragon |
| March 1, 2024 | After the boundary | Dragon |
The 2024 table identifies the Dragon year. The Observatory's 2023 table identifies the preceding Gui-mao year as Rabbit.
Why leap day is not a second zodiac cutoff
- Start with the recorded Gregorian birth date. February 29 is a real date in the Gregorian leap year 2024.
- Find that year's lunar New Year date. For 2024, the Observatory's table places it on February 10.
- Compare the dates. February 29 is later than February 10, so the date belongs to the Dragon lunar year under this site's rule.
A leap day in the Gregorian calendar and a leap month in the Chinese calendar are different calendar features. Neither changes the site's rule for determining a birth-year animal: compare the full birth date with the selected year's lunar New Year date. The calculator does not treat February 29 as a special animal.
Quick answers
What if I enter only “2024”?
The year-only mode shows the animal of the lunar year beginning in 2024. For a personal result, enter the complete date because January and early-February births can precede that year's cutoff.
Does the animal change on March 1?
No. February 29 and March 1, 2024 are both after the February 10 lunar-year boundary.
Method and scope
We compared five Gregorian dates with the Observatory's 2024 year boundary and this calculator's date-based rule. The table and timeline are original worked examples. This page addresses the birth-year animal; it does not calculate a birth-hour pillar or make a claim about personality.
For another close-call date, see our 2026 Snake-to-Horse cutoff example.