When does the zodiac start?

The correct statement is beginning of spring. The Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month) is just a popular algorithm among the people today.

In ancient China, there were actually two calendars, one was based on the movement of the moon, that is, the "lunar calendar"; The other is based on the movement of the sun, which is the ancient "solar calendar". The 24 solar terms are determined according to the movement of the sun. Beginning of spring is the first day of the year in the ancient solar calendar, and the zodiac (called the twelve earthly branches in ancient times) is determined accordingly, which has nothing to do with the lunar calendar.

In addition, in a year, in addition to the zodiac (earthly branch), there are also corresponding zodiac (earthly branch) in the month, day and hour (it should be noted that this "month" is also defined according to the 24 solar terms, not the lunar month). For example, beginning of spring is called silver moon (tiger) and Zishi (mouse) from eleven o'clock in the evening to one o'clock in the morning.

As a China person who knows something about this, he has an obligation to help the post-80s, post-90s and even post-00s. I hope everyone will forward, forward and forward the above content to answer everyone who comes to Baidu or other websites to ask similar questions. I hope that friends born around the Spring Festival can correctly calculate their birth year.