Chinese lunar calendar converter: Gregorian to lunar and back
This free Chinese lunar calendar converter turns a Gregorian date into the Chinese lunar date — month, day and leap month — and a lunar date back into the Gregorian calendar. Type in either box and the other updates at once, with the year’s stem-branch name (干支), its zodiac animal, the length of the month and a table of every month of that lunar year.
It covers 19 February 1901 to 31 December 2100 and follows the conversion tables published by the Hong Kong Observatory, including leap months such as the leap 2nd month of 2023 and the leap 6th month of 2025. Use it to find a lunar birthday, the date of a festival, or what a date on an old document means.
How to use the Chinese Lunar Calendar Converter
- To convert Gregorian to lunar, pick a date in the Gregorian date box — or press Today.
- To convert lunar to Gregorian, type the Lunar year, choose the Month and enter the Day.
- If the month is a leap month (闰月), tick Leap month; the box is only available when that year has a leap month with that number.
- Read the result, the stem-branch year and animal, and the month table; the last table shows the same lunar date in each of the next ten years.
- Press Copy result to paste the conversion elsewhere.
Chinese Lunar Calendar Converter features
Both directions
Gregorian to lunar and lunar to Gregorian in linked boxes, with the Chinese date written in characters (e.g. 闰六月初一).
Leap months
Every leap month from 1901 to 2100 — 73 of them — taken from the Hong Kong Observatory tables.
Year name and zodiac
The heavenly stem and earthly branch of the lunar year, its animal, element and yin or yang.
Lunar birthdays
The same lunar month and day in each of the next ten years; when that month has only 29 days, its last day is shown.
Month table
All 12 or 13 months of the lunar year with their start dates and lengths (29 or 30 days).
How the Chinese lunar calendar works
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar. Each month begins on the day of the new moon, so months have 29 or 30 days, and twelve months make about 354 days. To keep the year in step with the seasons, a 13th, leap month is added about seven times in 19 years. It repeats the number of the month before it and is placed where a month contains no major solar term (中气). New moons and solar terms are reckoned for China Standard Time, UTC+8.
The year is named in a cycle of 60, combining ten heavenly stems with twelve earthly branches; each branch has an animal. 2025 is 乙巳 (Yi-si), the Year of the Snake; 2026 is 丙午 (Bing-wu), the Horse. A lunar year — and its animal — begins at Chinese New Year, between 21 January and 20 February, so a date in January or early February can belong to the previous year. Some astrology traditions change the animal at the solar term Lichun (about 4 February) instead; the Chinese zodiac calculator explains both.
| Gregorian | Chinese lunar date | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Jan 2025 | 乙巳年 正月初一 | Chinese New Year 2025 |
| 25 Jul 2025 | 乙巳年 闰六月初一 | leap 6th month begins |
| 6 Oct 2025 | 乙巳年 八月十五 | Mid-Autumn Festival |
| 17 Feb 2026 | 丙午年 正月初一 | Chinese New Year 2026 |
| 22 Mar 2023 | 癸卯年 闰二月初一 | leap 2nd month begins |
| 6 Feb 2027 | 丁未年 正月初一 | Chinese New Year 2027 |
Where the dates come from
The month starts are taken from the Hong Kong Observatory’s Gregorian–Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables for 1901 to 2100 (downloaded 19 October 2026) and stored as a compact table, so the page works offline and gives the same answer in every browser. The automatic test checks 21 published dates, converts every one of the 73,000 days in the range there and back, and compares the table with your browser’s built-in Chinese calendar. That built-in calendar (ICU) disagrees with the Observatory on a handful of month starts, for example Chinese New Year 2027, which the Observatory gives as 6 February 2027.
Other calendars: the Hijri date converter, the Persian calendar converter and the Hindu calendar converter.
Chinese Lunar Calendar Converter FAQ
How do I convert a Chinese lunar date to Gregorian?
Enter the lunar year, month and day in the lunar box (tick Leap month if needed). The Gregorian date and weekday appear straight away.
What is a leap month in the Chinese calendar?
An extra month added about every three years to keep the lunar months in line with the seasons. It repeats the number of the month before: 2025 had a 6th month and then a leap 6th month.
What is today’s date in the Chinese lunar calendar?
Press Today: the converter shows today’s lunar date in Chinese and English, with the year name and animal.
How do I find my lunar birthday this year?
Enter your birth date in the Gregorian box; the last table lists the same lunar month and day in each of the next ten years.
Which years does the Chinese lunar calendar converter cover?
From Chinese New Year 1901 (19 February 1901) to 31 December 2100 — the range of the Hong Kong Observatory tables.
Why does another calendar show a different date?
Calendars for years before 1929 used Beijing local time, and a few computer calendars calculate new moons slightly differently. This page follows the Hong Kong Observatory.