One cell of 144
Aries + Year of the Ox
Two calendars cross at your birth date. This is the cell where Aries meets the Year of the Ox, and the animal that lives in it.
Answer first
What animal is an Aries born in the Year of the Ox?
An Aries born in the Year of the Ox is the Sun Bear. The month and day set the Aries half, the birth year sets the Ox half, and the crossing points at one cell in a grid of 144. Read the Sun Bear for the full reading of that cell.
The two halves
What each calendar brings
The Aries half
Aries runs from March 21 to April 19, cardinal Fire under Mars. You start things. The season opens with you, which is why waiting is the one skill the sign never hands you for free. Read Aries in the Western wing.
The Ox half
The Ox is the second branch and shares its trine with the Snake and the Rooster, the careful builders. You finish what the excitable ones abandon. Recent Ox years are 1997, 2009 and 2021. Read the Year of the Ox.
The crossing
What Aries and the Ox make together
Aries brings the nerve to move first. The Ox year brings the endurance that outlasts every mood. Put both in one creature and you get the Sun Bear.
You go up the tallest, most guarded tree in the forest alone, and you finish the climb even after the first sting.
The Ox runs in a trine with the Snake and the Rooster. Held to the same Aries season, those years give the Loggerhead Shrike and the Cassowary, the two crossings whose engines run closest to yours.
The boundary
Born near the boundary?
The Chinese year does not turn on January 1. It turns at the lunar New Year, somewhere between late January and mid February, so a birthday in those weeks can belong to the animal before this one. The year finder checks the real date for any year you give it.
Common questions
Questions about this crossing
Is the Sun Bear the same as being an Aries?
Aries is half of it. The Sun Bear is the specific crossing of Aries with the Year of the Ox, one cell out of 144. Two people can share a Sun sign and carry different animals, because the birth year changes the second half.
What if I was born in January or February of a Ox year?
The Chinese year turns at the lunar New Year, which lands between late January and mid February. A birthday in those weeks can belong to the previous animal, so the year finder checks the real boundary before the grid names your crossing.
Which crossings share the Sun Bear's trine?
The Ox runs with the Snake and the Rooster. Held to the same Aries dates, those years give the Loggerhead Shrike and the Cassowary, the two animals whose instincts sit closest to the Sun Bear's.
One step away
Neighboring crossings
Or start over at the full 12 by 12 grid, or read how the crossing works.