Know your Sun Sign

What Is a Sun Sign?

Your Sun sign is the zodiac sign the Sun was passing through on the day you were born. The zodiac belt is actually elliptical, but astrologers treat it as a circle of 360 degrees to make calculations simpler. This circle is divided into 12 equal parts of 30 degrees each, and each part is one zodiac sign. Because the Sun takes about a month to move through each sign, your Sun sign depends only on your date of birth, not your exact birth time.

How Your Sun Sign Is Calculated

To find your Sun sign, you only need your date of birth. Astrologers check which of the 12 zodiac signs the Sun was passing through on that date. Because the Sun moves at a steady, predictable pace, the date range for each Sun sign stays roughly the same every year, shifting by no more than a day or so.

Sun Sign and Compatibility

In Western astrology, the Sun sign plays a major role in checking compatibility with the people around you. This includes close relationships such as your mother, father, siblings, spouse, or partner, as well as everyday relationships like friends, elders, business partners, your boss, and neighbours. Sun sign compatibility is often used to judge whether a long-term relationship between two people is likely to work well.

Sun Sign vs. Rashi (Moon Sign)

It helps to know the difference between a Sun sign and a Rashi. Western astrology is built around the Sun sign, which depends on where the Sun was on your birth date and stays the same for about a month at a time. Vedic (Indian) astrology instead relies on the Rashi, or Moon sign, which depends on where the Moon was at your birth and can change every two to three days. In Vedic astrology, the Moon and your Rashi are considered more important for reading personality and predicting day-to-day events than the Sun sign is.