2013 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Water Snake

沉浸 TeamAugust 26, 20264 min read

The 2013 Chinese zodiac animal is the Snake. More precisely, 2013 was the Year of the Water Snake (癸巳 guǐsì): the zodiac year ran from February 10, 2013 to January 30, 2014. If you were born in that window, your Chinese zodiac sign is the Snake (蛇 shé).

One catch before anything else: the zodiac year follows the lunar calendar, not January 1. Born in 2013 before February 10? Then you belong to the previous animal, the Water Dragon. The next section has the exact dates.

2013 Chinese zodiac at a glance

Animal: Snake (蛇 shé), the sixth of the 12 zodiac animals
Element: Water (水 shuǐ)
Traditional name: 癸巳 (guǐsì) in the 60-year cycle
Dates: February 10, 2013 to January 30, 2014
Lucky numbers: 2, 8, 9
Lucky colors: black, red, yellow

Born in January or February 2013?

Chinese New Year fell on February 10 in 2013. So:

Born January 1 to February 9, 2013: you're a Water Dragon (dragon year 2012), not a Snake.
Born February 10 or later in 2013: you're a Water Snake.

This is the single most common mistake people make with the Chinese zodiac. When a January or February birthday is involved, always check the new year date before assuming the animal.

The Water Snake personality

Snakes are the zodiac's deep thinkers: wise, composed, and intensely private. They speak less and notice more, trust their intuition over the crowd, and play long games beautifully. Getting to know one takes years; it's worth it.

Water is the element of flow and feeling. It adds adaptability, intuition, and quiet persuasion. In the 60-year cycle each animal pairs with one of five elements, so a Water Snake (born 2013) reads a little different from Snakes of other years: the water side colors how the snake's core traits show up.

Strengths:

Wise and perceptive
Calm and composed
Determined under the surface
Excellent judge of people

Watch out for:

Secretive and hard to read
Jealous when insecure
Slow to trust

Snakes excel in research, psychology, finance, strategy, and art, in work with depth over noise.

2013 zodiac compatibility

Traditional Chinese astrology groups the 12 animals into "trines" of three signs that share a temperament, and pairs each sign with a "secret friend" and one clash.

Best matches for the Snake: the Ox and the Rooster (trine partners), plus the Monkey, the Snake's secret friend.
Trickiest match: the Pig, the Snake's opposite on the zodiac wheel.

Treat this as folk wisdom rather than fate. Plenty of happy couples "clash" on paper, and Chinese families today read these charts with a wink more often than a frown.

How to say it in Chinese

蛇 (shé): snake
生肖 (shēngxiào): Chinese zodiac sign
我属蛇 (wǒ shǔ shé): "I'm a Snake." The verb 属 (shǔ) means "to belong to"
本命年 (běnmìngnián): your own zodiac year, when your animal comes back around

Born in 2013? Your next 本命年 is 2037, the next Snake year after 2026. Tradition says to wear red that year for luck.

Want to go beyond the zodiac? Create a free Chenjin account to hear words like 蛇 and 生肖 pronounced by native-quality audio, save them as flashcards, and start reading real Chinese stories at your level.

Other Snake years

1965: Wood Snake (February 2, 1965 to January 20, 1966)
1977: Fire Snake (February 18, 1977 to February 6, 1978)
1989: Earth Snake (February 6, 1989 to January 26, 1990)
2001: Metal Snake (January 24, 2001 to February 11, 2002)
2025: Wood Snake (January 29, 2025 to February 16, 2026)

Read the full Year of the Snake guide for the personality in depth, or look up a different birth year on the Chinese zodiac overview.

2013 Chinese zodiac FAQ

What animal is 2013 in the Chinese zodiac?

2013 is the Year of the Snake. Anyone born from February 10, 2013 to January 30, 2014 is a Snake; a birthday earlier in 2013 belongs to the Year of the Dragon.

What element is 2013?

Water. The full sign for 2013 is the Water Snake (癸巳 guǐsì), a combination that repeats only once every 60 years.

How old is someone born in 2013?

Someone born in 2013 turns 13 in 2026, or is still 12 if their birthday hasn't come around yet this year. In traditional Chinese age counting (虚岁 xūsuì), you'd add one more, since babies are counted as one year old at birth.