24 solar terms in 2026 —
dates and times

Shaded rows are the twelve jie. The table runs by the Western calendar year, so it opens with Minor Cold in January, inside the Ox month that closes the previous saju year, and Minor Cold 2027 belongs to the next page.

The twelve that change a chart

A saju or BaZi month is not a calendar month: it begins at a jie and ends at the next one. Whoever is born after the moment below has the new month pillar, whoever is born before it has the old one, and the time of birth decides for anyone born on the day itself.

• Jan 5, 17:23 — Minor Cold (小寒) opens the Ox month 丑.
• Feb 4, 05:02 — Start of Spring (立春) opens the Tiger month 寅, and with it the 丙午 (Fire Horse) year.
• Mar 5, 22:59 — Awakening of Insects (驚蟄) opens the Rabbit month 卯.
• Apr 5, 03:40 — Clear and Bright (清明) opens the Dragon month 辰.
• May 5, 20:49 — Start of Summer (立夏) opens the Snake month 巳.
• Jun 6, 00:48 — Grain in Ear (芒種) opens the Horse month 午.
• Jul 7, 10:57 — Minor Heat (小暑) opens the Goat month 未.
• Aug 7, 20:43 — Start of Autumn (立秋) opens the Monkey month 申.
• Sep 7, 23:41 — White Dew (白露) opens the Rooster month 酉.
• Oct 8, 15:29 — Cold Dew (寒露) opens the Dog month 戌.
• Nov 7, 18:52 — Start of Winter (立冬) opens the Pig month 亥.
• Dec 7, 11:53 — Major Snow (大雪) opens the Rat month 子.

Ipchun, the year boundary

The saju year does not begin on January 1 or at Lunar New Year. It begins at the Start of Spring, when the Sun reaches 315° of longitude, and in 2026 that is Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 05:02 in Korea. Anyone born in 2026 before that moment has the 乙巳 (Wood Snake) year pillar of 2025; the zodiac animal in their chart is the Snake, whatever the Lunar New Year tables say. Because the instant is the same everywhere, it lands on different clocks around the world:

Daylight-saving time is not in force in early February in these cities. The chart calculator does this conversion for any time zone, and the Ipchun guide works through the cases where the three New Years disagree.

Same instant, different dates

In UTC, 6 terms fall on the previous calendar day (Start of Spring, Rain Water, Clear and Bright, Grain in Ear, Major Heat and Winter Solstice), because Korea is nine hours ahead. Even Beijing, only one hour behind Seoul, has Rain Water on Feb 18 and Grain in Ear on Jun 5 — the same instant, the day before. Korean almanacs, Korean saju software and this page all use Korea Standard Time; Chinese and Hong Kong almanacs use UTC+8. When you compare two sources, check the zone before you decide one of them is wrong.

How the times are computed

A solar term is the moment the Sun’s apparent longitude, seen from Earth, reaches a multiple of 15 degrees. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute computes those moments from a modern planetary ephemeris and publishes them, to the minute, in its yearly almanac; these are the times above. Whole-minute rounding is why two careful sources can differ by a minute. Sajucheop’s own calculator solves the same problem from a compact formula for the Sun’s position, which can run a few minutes ahead of the published times; it warns you when a birth falls within two hours of a boundary, and for a birth within minutes of one, the published time is the one to trust.

FAQ

When is Lichun (Ipchun) in 2026?

Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 05:02 Korea Standard Time, which is Feb 3 20:02 UTC and Feb 4 04:02 in Beijing. In a saju or BaZi chart it is the moment the year pillar changes from 乙巳 (Wood Snake) to 丙午 (Fire Horse).

When is the winter solstice in 2026 in Korea?

Tuesday, December 22, 2026 at 05:50 KST (Dec 21 20:50 UTC), the longest night of the year. Koreans eat red-bean porridge on the day. The summer solstice, the longest day, is Sunday, June 21, 2026 at 17:25 KST.

Are the solar term dates the same in China and Korea?

Each term is a single instant for the whole planet, so only the clock reading differs: Korea (UTC+9) is one hour ahead of China and Hong Kong (UTC+8). In UTC, 6 terms fall on the previous calendar day (Start of Spring, Rain Water, Clear and Bright, Grain in Ear, Major Heat and Winter Solstice), because Korea is nine hours ahead. Even Beijing, only one hour behind Seoul, has Rain Water on Feb 18 and Grain in Ear on Jun 5 — the same instant, the day before.

Why do different websites give different times for the same term?

Three reasons: the time zone (Beijing, Korea and UTC are all common), rounding (almanacs print whole minutes and some sites truncate the seconds instead), and the ephemeris used. The times here are the ones the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute publishes. Our own chart calculator computes each term from the Sun’s position and can differ from these by a few minutes, which only matters for a birth within minutes of a boundary.

Which solar terms matter for a saju or BaZi chart?

The twelve jie (절, 節), the odd-numbered terms that begin each solar month: Minor Cold, Start of Spring, Awakening of Insects, Clear and Bright, Start of Summer, Grain in Ear, Minor Heat, Start of Autumn, White Dew, Cold Dew, Start of Winter and Major Snow. A chart’s month pillar changes at each of them, and the year pillar changes at the Start of Spring. The other twelve, the zhongqi, mark the middle of a month and change nothing in a chart.

2027 · 2028 · What the 24 terms mean · Day pillar calendar · Chinese lunar calendar · Lunar New Year dates · 한국어