Zodiac Sign Dates of Birth

Have you ever asked yourself what is my Zodiac Sign?

Make Sure You Have the Right Zodiac Sign

Your Zodiac sign (also called sun sign or star sign) is decided by the position of the sun at the moment of your birth, as seen from Earth. The sun takes a year to travel through the twelve Zodiac signs, but it’s not exactly a year of 365 days. The time it takes is closer to 365.25 days. That’s why we have leap years.

Every fourth year we add a day to the calendar, the 29th of February, making that year 366 days. Actually, there’s an additional rule, to make it more precise with the actual movement of earth and the sun: the starting year of a new century is not a leap year, unless it’s evenly divisible by 400. So, 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was.

The leap years make the dates of each Zodiac sign change slightly. For example, normally Aquarius starts on January 20 and ends on February 19, but that’s just the mean. In reality it changes slightly in a four year period from one leap year to the next.

Here are the leap years of the last century:

Zodiac Sign
Dates

If you were born on a day bordering between two Zodiac signs (at its cusp), you have to check what star sign you really are. It never differs more than a day in each direction. Again using Aquarius as an example, its start is almost always on the 20th of January, and the end of it on the 18th or 19th of February. People born on other dates need not be concerned.

Here are the cusp dates for all the twelve Zodiac signs, where I include the possible starting and ending dates for each Zodiac sign. If that’s not where you’re born, you need not to be concerned:

Cusp or Not

If you were born on one of the cusp dates given above, your sun may be on the very cusp (the starting point) of one Zodiac sign, or right by the end of the previous sign. You need to check your exact horoscope, because on those dates it depends on what time of day you were born – and in what place.

It’s particularly important with this check If you were born far away from Greenwich, England, since that’s the base for the dates given for the Zodiac signs.

Now, If you were born when the sun was at the very end of a Zodiac sign, you probably have a mixture of that and the next star sign in your character. But if your sun is at the very start (cusp) of a Zodiac sign, you’re definitely that star sign – and a firm one at that. That’s because a Zodiac sign is at its weakest by the end, and the strongest in the beginning of it.

Zodiac Sign Decans

The strongest is not equal to the most typical, though. A Zodiac sign is its most typical at the part of it (decan) corresponding to its quality: cardinal, fixed or mutable. Each Zodiac sign is one of the four elements fire, earth, air, and water. It’s also one of the three qualities. So, four elements and three qualities make twelve possible combinations.

A cardinal Zodiac sign is the most characteristic in its cardinal decan, which is from 0° to 10° in that sign. That corresponds roughly to the first ten days of its period.

A fixed Zodiac sign is the most characteristic in its fixed decan, which is from 10° to 20° in that sign. That corresponds roughly to the eleventh to twentieth days of its period – i.e. approximately the first ten days of the month it enters after a little more than a week.

A mutable Zodiac sign is the most characteristic in its mutable decan, which is from 20° to 30° in that sign. That corresponds roughly to the twentieth to thirtieth days of its period – i.e. approximately from the tenth of the month it is at the end.

Here are the qualities and decans of the twelve Zodiac signs:

Aries

cardinal

1st decan, 0°-10°

Taurus

fixed

2nd decan, 10°-20°

Gemini

mutable

3rd decan, 20°-30°

Cancer

cardinal

1st decan, 0°-10°

Leo

fixed

2nd decan, 10°-20°

Virgo

mutable

3rd decan, 20°-30°

Libra

cardinal

1st decan, 0°-10°

Scorpio

fixed

2nd decan, 10°-20°

Sagittarius

mutable

3rd decan, 20°-30°

Capricorn

cardinal

1st decan, 0°-10°

Aquarius

fixed

2nd decan, 10°-20°

Pisces

mutable

3rd decan, 20°-30°

So, If you want to be sure of what sign you are – and what decan in that sign – you may need to check your exact horoscope birth chart. It’s worth the trouble, or you may be basing your astrological inquiries on an error.

Zodiac Sign Calculator

I’ve added to this website a calculator to find what Zodiac sign you are, and what degree in that sign. It is quite precise, so if you just want to know where the sun was at the time of your birth – go ahead and use it. Here it is: