2023 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Water Rabbit

沉浸 TeamAugust 26, 20264 min read

The 2023 Chinese zodiac animal is the Rabbit. More precisely, 2023 was the Year of the Water Rabbit (癸卯 guǐmǎo): the zodiac year ran from January 22, 2023 to February 9, 2024. If you were born in that window, your Chinese zodiac sign is the Rabbit (兔 tù).

One catch before anything else: the zodiac year follows the lunar calendar, not January 1. Born in 2023 before January 22? Then you belong to the previous animal, the Water Tiger. The next section has the exact dates.

2023 Chinese zodiac at a glance

Animal: Rabbit (兔 tù), the fourth of the 12 zodiac animals
Element: Water (水 shuǐ)
Traditional name: 癸卯 (guǐmǎo) in the 60-year cycle
Dates: January 22, 2023 to February 9, 2024
Lucky numbers: 3, 4, 6
Lucky colors: red, pink, purple, blue

Born in January or February 2023?

Chinese New Year fell on January 22 in 2023. So:

Born January 1 to January 21, 2023: you're a Water Tiger (tiger year 2022), not a Rabbit.
Born January 22 or later in 2023: you're a Water Rabbit.

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 Rabbit personality

Rabbits are gentle, tactful, and quietly elegant. They read a room instantly, avoid conflict when they can, and build beautiful, comfortable lives. Under the softness is real shrewdness; a Rabbit rarely ends up on the losing side of a deal.

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 Rabbit (born 2023) reads a little different from Rabbits of other years: the water side colors how the rabbit's core traits show up.

Strengths:

Kind and considerate
Diplomatic peacemaker
Refined taste
Quietly shrewd

Watch out for:

Avoids confrontation
Can seem detached
Overly cautious at times

Rabbits do well in design, diplomacy, law, publishing, and care work, anywhere tact and taste matter.

2023 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 Rabbit: the Goat and the Pig (trine partners), plus the Dog, the Rabbit's secret friend.
Trickiest match: the Rooster, the Rabbit'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

兔 (tù): rabbit
生肖 (shēngxiào): Chinese zodiac sign
我属兔 (wǒ shǔ tù): "I'm a Rabbit." The verb 属 (shǔ) means "to belong to"
本命年 (běnmìngnián): your own zodiac year, when your animal comes back around

Born in 2023? Your next 本命年 is 2035, the next Rabbit 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 兔 and 生肖 pronounced by native-quality audio, save them as flashcards, and start reading real Chinese stories at your level.

Other Rabbit years

1963: Water Rabbit (January 25, 1963 to February 12, 1964)
1975: Wood Rabbit (February 11, 1975 to January 30, 1976)
1987: Fire Rabbit (January 29, 1987 to February 16, 1988)
1999: Earth Rabbit (February 16, 1999 to February 4, 2000)
2011: Metal Rabbit (February 3, 2011 to January 22, 2012)

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

2023 Chinese zodiac FAQ

What animal is 2023 in the Chinese zodiac?

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit. Anyone born from January 22, 2023 to February 9, 2024 is a Rabbit; a birthday earlier in 2023 belongs to the Year of the Tiger.

What element is 2023?

Water. The full sign for 2023 is the Water Rabbit (癸卯 guǐmǎo), a combination that repeats only once every 60 years.

How old is someone born in 2023?

Someone born in 2023 turns 3 in 2026, or is still 2 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.