Wood accompanied the Snake in the Chinese zodiac year beginning on January 29, 2025.
The year is therefore known as the Year of the Wood Snake. Chinese calendrical tradition combines the twelve zodiac animals with five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. This creates a repeating sixty-year cycle of animal-element pairings.
Lunar New Year began on January 29, 2025, starting the Snake year in the Gregorian calendar. It continued until February 16, 2026, immediately before the Year of the Horse began on February 17, 2026. Gregorian year labels can therefore overlap two zodiac years.
Snake years are culturally associated in different traditions with wisdom, mystery, composure, or transformation. Such descriptions are folklore and should not be treated as reliable predictions about everyone born during the year.