The Chinese Birth Chart

The Chinese birth chart is also known as the Chinese gender predictor and is a chart that, based on the age of the mother at the time of conception and the month in which she conceived, parents can use to figure out the gender of their baby before it is born. Even more exciting is that when used correctly, the accuracy of the Chinese birth chart can be greater than 50%! This makes it a great, fun, tool for mom’s and dad’s to be all around the world! You can even make a baby shower game out of it if you wanted to!

History of the Chinese Birth Chart

According to legends, the original chart was found in an ancient tomb in China. The chart works by using the age of the mother when the child is conceived, the month the child is conceived and varies by year. However, it’s all too easy to get this chart completely wrong and unfortunately, too many people aren’t aware of the simple way in which you can ensure greater accuracy with your Chinese birth chart. While most people know that the Chinese follow a different calendar, based on lunar cycles, and even have a different time for the start of their New Year, we don’t often think about how that affects Western interactions with things like the gender predictor. We have to remember that this is a Chinese chart, not a European or American chart, and that means it is based off the Chinese lunar calendar! This means that the mother’s age at time of conception isn’t her Western Astrological age based on our year, but her lunar age based on the Chinese calendar.

How to use the Chinese Gender Prediction

Calculating your lunar age isn’t terribly hard. First, find out when the Chinese New Year was the year you were born. If you were born before the Chinese New Year in that year (the year is important because the Chinese New Year can be any day between January 10th and February 19th!), then subtract one year from your age. If you were born after the Chinese New Year in the year you were born, do nothing. Then, look and see if the Chinese New Year has occurred for the current year. If it has, then subtract one. If it hasn’t, then do nothing. Now, calculate your birth year based on the year you were born, adjusted for the Chinese New Year for that year and the current year if necessary, then add one year to your age for the nine months you were in the womb. This is your lunar age!

For example: August 22, 1984
Any birth date after February 2nd should not subtract a year. Plus, it’s fall so we’ve also already had the New Year for this year! That means that all that should be done for this birthday is to add one year to the age of the mother. This means that the lunar age of someone born on August 22nd, 1984 should actually be calculated as though they were born in 1983.

Second example: January 20, 1994
This birthday occurs before the Chinese New year which means that they should subtract a year from their birthday making it 1993. However, the Chinese New Year for the current year has already occurred which means they should not subtract a second year. Now they should add one year to their age because of the nine months they spent in the womb. This means that someone born on January 20th in 1994 should calculate their age as though they were born in 1992!

Once you have your lunar age, you can go to a Chinese Birth Chart and begin looking at the months, however, it’s important that, again, you look for a chart that uses the Chinese lunar months, not the Gregorian calendar used in the West! Because the Chinese base their month off lunar cycles, the length of their months is different and this can affect the gender of your baby. You don’t want to get pregnant during the girl half a month if you want a boy and vice versa, so knowing where the month changes based on the lunar calendar is critical!