Year of the Snake: Years List, Traits & Compatibility

Recent Years of the Snake: 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025. The sign returns every 12 years; the next one after 2025 is 2037. Each occurrence pairs the Si (巳) branch with a different Heavenly Stem, so the same animal appears as Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water versions across a 60-year cycle.

A zodiac year starts at Lunar New Year, not on January 1. Lunar New Year falls between January 21 and February 20, so anyone born in that window should check the exact start date in the table below before assuming the sign.

The 2025 Year of the Snake (Wood Snake, Yi-Si 乙巳) runs from January 29, 2025 to February 16, 2026, while Li Chun, the year-pillar boundary used by many Bazi schools, falls on February 3, 2025. The next Year of the Snake begins on February 15, 2037. A Chinese zodiac year does not start on January 1. The popular zodiac year begins at Lunar New Year (late January to mid-February), while many Bazi schools change the year pillar at the Li Chun solar term (around February 4). Use the table to check a January or February birthday against both boundaries.

In the Chinese calendar the Snake is a label for Si (巳), the 6th of the twelve Earthly Branches. Si is Yin Fire. It marks the two-hour period of 9–11 am, the south-southeast direction, and early summer.

In a Bazi chart Si is also the branch of the 4th solar month, which begins at the Li Xia (立夏, Start of Summer) solar term. Its hidden stems are Bing 丙 (Yang Fire), Wu 戊 (Yang Earth), Geng 庚 (Yang Metal). Those hidden stems are why the same animal can read differently from one chart to another: they interact with the Day Master in ways the animal symbol does not show.

The traditional relationships are fixed by branch position rather than by personality:

• Six combination (Liu He): Snake and Monkey.
• Triad (San He): Snake, Rooster, Ox, which together form a Metal frame.
• Clash (Chong): Snake and Pig, the branch six places away.
• Six harm (Liu Hai): Snake and Tiger.

These pairings describe how the branches interact in a calendar or chart. They are not a verdict on any relationship, and a full Bazi comparison looks at all four pillars of both people. The compatibility chart lists the same patterns for every sign.

Popular zodiac writing describes Snake people as strategic, intuitive, and refined. Treat that as cultural symbolism attached to the Si branch, not as a personality test: the year animal is one of eight characters in a birth chart, and the Day Master (the stem of the day pillar) carries more weight in a Bazi reading.

2026 is a Bing-Wu (丙午) Fire Horse year. For the Snake, Wu is neither a traditional harmony nor a clash pair. The 2026 forecast explains how that relationship is usually read, and why it should be checked against the full chart.