December 21 zodiac sign: Sagittarius or Capricorn?
December 21 can be Sagittarius or Capricorn. The Sun enters Capricorn around this date at a different moment every year, so the answer depends on the year you were born, the time and the time zone.
Times in Eastern Time (ET)
In Eastern Time (ET), from 1925 to 2030, the Sun entered Capricorn on December 21 in 64 of the 106 years. December 21 was Sagittarius all day in 42 years and Capricorn all day in no year.
Your birth year
In 2026 the Sun entered Capricorn on December 21 at 3:50 PM Eastern Time (ET). Born before then: Sagittarius. Born after: Capricorn. Within a minute or two of 3:50 PM, only an exact birth time can decide.
Years when the Sun changed sign on December 21
Born before the time shown: Sagittarius. Born after it: Capricorn. Within a minute or two of it, only an exact birth time can decide. Times in Eastern Time (ET).
| Year | The Sun enters Capricorn |
|---|---|
| 1928 | |
| 1932 | |
| 1936 | |
| 1940 | |
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| 2030 |
Sagittarius all day on December 21: 1925–1927, 1929–1931, 1933–1935, 1937–1939, 1941–1943, 1945–1947, 1950–1951, 1954–1955, 1958–1959, 1962–1963, 1966–1967, 1970–1971, 1974–1975, 1978–1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011.
Where the Sun stands on December 21
At any hour of December 21 in Eastern Time (ET), in any year from 1925 to 2030, the Sun stood between 28°19′ Sagittarius and 0°52′ Capricorn.
- 28°19′ Sagittarius to 30°00′ Sagittarius: the third decan of Sagittarius, in the term of Mars.
- 0°00′ Capricorn to 0°52′ Capricorn: the first decan of Capricorn, in the term of Mercury.
Decans are the three 10° thirds of a sign. Terms, also called bounds, divide each sign unequally among the five planets; these are the Egyptian terms as Ptolemy tabulates them (Tetrabiblos I.20).
In other time zones
In how many years from 1925 to 2030 the change fell on December 21 in local time, with each place's daylight-saving rules as they were then.
| Time zone | Change on December 21 | Sagittarius all day | Capricorn all day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honolulu | 82 | 22 | 2 |
| Los Angeles | 77 | 29 | 0 |
| Denver | 73 | 33 | 0 |
| Chicago | 69 | 37 | 0 |
| New York | 64 | 42 | 0 |
| London | 41 | 65 | 0 |
| Berlin | 38 | 68 | 0 |
| India (Kolkata) | 21 | 85 | 0 |
| Tokyo | 11 | 95 | 0 |
| Sydney | 7 | 99 | 0 |
| Auckland | 4 | 102 | 0 |
What the two signs mean
Know your birth time and place? Your birth chart gives the exact answer.
How this is computed
Each time is the moment the Sun's ecliptic longitude crosses the boundary between the two signs. Our engine computes it, and for every year from 1920 to 2035 it agrees with Swiss Ephemeris outputs within a minute, and with the U.S. Naval Observatory's published equinoxes and solstices within their printed minute. A birth within a minute or two of the time shown needs a more exact recorded time than most birth records give.
A date is a calendar date in one time zone. Each zone's rules are used as they were at the time, daylight saving included, from the IANA time-zone database. The page is written in Eastern Time (ET); your browser can show your own zone.
Astrology is a symbolic language, not a science. This page is about where the Sun was, which is astronomy. What each sign means is on the pages linked above.