In love
In love the Snake is charming, devoted and possessive, with strong feelings it does not always show. It needs loyalty and discretion from a partner, and it does not forgive betrayal easily.
Animal 6 of 12 · Fire · Yin
Chinese zodiac Snake
The Snake is the sixth animal of the Chinese zodiac — fire, yin. Its traditional traits are discernment, privacy and long calculation.
- Element
- Fire
- Polarity
- Yin
- Hours
- 9–11 AM
- Lucky numbers
- 2, 8, 9
Character
Snake personality
The Snake is the animal of wisdom. Tradition reads it as intuitive, thoughtful, elegant and quietly determined — someone who watches, plans and moves only when the moment is right. Snakes are analytical and often deeply perceptive about people, and they keep their own counsel.
That reserve can harden into secrecy, suspicion and jealousy. Snakes can hold grudges and find it hard to trust, and their calm surface sometimes hides intense feelings. They prefer depth to breadth: a few close people, a few chosen goals.
- Strength. Reads situations accurately and says nothing until saying something helps.
- Friction. Keeps its own counsel to the point where nobody knows where they stand.
Traits
Perceptive Private Elegant Suspicious PatientSeasonSummer
MonthMay
Lucky colorsred, yellow, black
Each animal also governs two hours of the day — the Snake holds 9–11 AM. Someone born in those hours is said to carry the Snake as an inner sign regardless of their year.
Work and money
Snakes excel at research, strategy, finance, psychology, law and anything that rewards patience and insight. With money they are shrewd investors who think long-term.
Health and pace
The traditional advice is to manage hidden stress and not to let worries simmer. Snakes benefit from rest and calm surroundings.
18 pages · printable
The 2027 Sky Calendar — free PDF
Every retrograde, eclipse, new and full moon of 2027 to the minute, already converted to your city. A month to a page, ready to print.
Primary source
The snake in a Chinese text of about AD 80
“Sse goes with fire, and has the serpent as animal.”
Wang Chong, Lun-hêng, “The Nature of Things”, translated by Alfred Forke, Lun-hêng, Part I: Philosophical Essays of Wang Chʻung (1907), pp. 105–106 — read the original text.
Wang Chong already pairs the earthly branches with the animals still used today — and lists them to argue against the idea that animals fight because of their elements. The sheep of his text is the goat of the modern zodiac, the boar its pig.
Snake years
| Year | Element | New year began |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Metal Snake | January 27 |
| 1953 | Water Snake | February 14 |
| 1965 | Wood Snake | February 2 |
| 1977 | Fire Snake | February 18 |
| 1989 | Earth Snake | February 6 |
| 2001 | Metal Snake | January 24 |
| 2013 | Water Snake | February 10 |
| 2025 | Wood Snake | January 29 |
Born in January or early February of one of these years? Check the new year date — you may belong to the previous animal.
The 9 Snake years in the table began as early as January 24 2001 and as late as February 18 1977 — a window of 25 days. Anyone born in 1977 before February 18 is still a Dragon.
The five Snakes
The Snake's own fixed element is Fire. The element of the year interacts with it differently each time, which is what separates the five versions — and why the cycle runs sixty years.
| Version | Years | Relation to Fire |
|---|---|---|
| Earth Snake | 1929, 1989 | Drains it — productive but costly |
| Metal Snake | 1941, 2001 | Dominated by it — most forceful |
| Water Snake | 1953, 2013 | Controls it — most restrained |
| Wood Snake | 1965, 2025 | Feeds it — best supported |
| Fire Snake | 1977, 2037 | Doubled — strongest expression |
Calculated from the lunar calendar
Not every Snake year is the same length
The 9 Snake years from 1929 to 2025 last anywhere from 353 to 384 days, so the window for being born under the sign is wider in some years than in others. Three of them have a thirteenth, leap month.
| Year | From | To | Days | Lunar months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | Feb 10, 1929 | Jan 29, 1930 | 354 | 12 |
| 1941 | Jan 27, 1941 | Feb 14, 1942 | 384 | 13 — leap year |
| 1953 | Feb 14, 1953 | Feb 2, 1954 | 354 | 12 |
| 1965 | Feb 2, 1965 | Jan 20, 1966 | 353 | 12 |
| 1977 | Feb 18, 1977 | Feb 6, 1978 | 354 | 12 |
| 1989 | Feb 6, 1989 | Jan 26, 1990 | 355 | 12 |
| 2001 | Jan 24, 2001 | Feb 11, 2002 | 384 | 13 — leap year |
| 2013 | Feb 10, 2013 | Jan 30, 2014 | 355 | 12 |
| 2025 | Jan 29, 2025 | Feb 16, 2026 | 384 | 13 — leap year |
Average length
364.1 days
Longest
1941 — 384 days
Shortest
1965 — 353 days
Difference
31 days
Why some years get a leap month: the calendar adds one seven times every nineteen years to stay in step with the seasons. How the lunar year is built →
The next Snake year is 2037
By tradition a Snake treads carefully in its own year rather than celebrating it. Why your own animal's year is considered unlucky.
Snake compatibility
| With | Relation | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ox | Trine — natural allies | 90% |
| Rooster | Trine — natural allies | 90% |
| Monkey | Six harmonies — secret friends | 88% |
| Snake | Same sign | 72% |
| Rat | Neutral | 68% |
| Rabbit | Neutral | 68% |
| Dragon | Neutral | 68% |
| Horse | Neutral | 68% |
| Goat | Neutral | 68% |
| Dog | Neutral | 68% |
| Tiger | Six harms | 55% |
| Pig | Clash | 45% |
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Chinese Zodiac Snake: Years, Traits and Compatibility.” Accessed October 29, 2026. https://astrohot.com/chinese-horoscope/sign/snake/
For Wikipedia
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