Sun Sign for March: Pisces or Aries, and the Exact Minute the Sun Changes Sign

Sun Sign for March at a Glance

March Day by Day: Which Sign Is Each Birthday?

Here is the month laid out, using the 41 crossing times in the table below. Every line holds for births in the United States, from Eastern to Pacific time.

Central time runs one hour behind Eastern and Mountain two hours behind, so a few more years tip onto March 19 there: 2016 in Central time (11:30 PM), and 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 in Mountain time. In every other year Central and Mountain share the Eastern date.

So how much of March is Pisces? Take 2027. The Sun enters Aries on March 20 at 4:25 PM Eastern, which is 19 full days plus 16 hours and 25 minutes, or 19.684 days. Divide by 31 days and Pisces owns 63.5 percent of the month, Aries the other 36.5 percent. In 2026 the crossing came at 10:46 AM Eastern, so Pisces had 19.449 days, or 62.7 percent. Call it roughly two thirds Pisces, one third Aries, and the exact split moves by a few hours each year.

When the Sun Enters Aries, 1990 to 2030

This is the minute the Sun reaches 0 degrees Aries, which is also the exact minute of the March equinox, for every year from 1990 to 2030. The source is the US Naval Observatory’s seasons data, in Universal Time, converted to US clocks using the daylight saving rule in force that year. Find your birth year, compare your birth time, and you have your answer.

Three things to know about reading your row:

1. The daylight saving rule changed in 2007. From 1987 to 2006 US clocks moved forward on the first Sunday in April, so every March crossing in those years is in standard time: Eastern is Universal Time minus 5 hours, Pacific minus 8. Since 2007 clocks move forward on the second Sunday in March, which is always March 8 to 14 and always before the crossing, so Eastern is Universal Time minus 4 and Pacific minus 7. The table already has this built in.
2. The March 19 years. In Eastern time the Sun entered Aries on March 19 in 2020, 2024 and 2028. In Pacific time it did so in every leap year from 2000 to 2028. Those are the only years in the table where a March 19 birth can be an Aries.
3. There is no March 21 crossing. In US time the Sun entered Aries on March 20 or March 19 in all 41 years. So a March 21 birth in the United States is an Aries, full stop.

The same crossings in Universal Time

Born outside the United States? Convert from these. In five of the 41 years the crossing fell on March 21 in Universal Time, which means a March 21 birth in Europe, Africa or Asia in those years can still be a Pisces if it came before the minute shown.

The March 21 years in Universal Time are 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. There has not been one since, and there is none through 2030.

Why the Date Moves

The calendar and the Sun are not quite in step. NASA puts the tropical year, one full lap of the seasons, at 365.2422 days. That is 365 days plus 0.2422 of a day, and 0.2422 times 24 hours is 5.81 hours, or about 5 hours 49 minutes. So each year the Sun reaches 0 degrees Aries roughly 5 hours 49 minutes later on the clock than it did the year before.

You can watch it in the table. In 2029 the crossing is March 20 at 08:02 Universal Time. In 2030 it is March 20 at 13:52, which is 5 hours 50 minutes later. The gap wobbles a little from year to year (2026 to 2027 is 5 hours 39 minutes), but it always runs late.

Then the leap day pulls it back. Between the 2027 crossing (March 20, 20:25) and the 2028 crossing (March 20, 02:17) the calendar gained February 29, and the clock time jumped back 18 hours 8 minutes. That is why the leap years are the ones that land on March 19 in US time: the crossing is at its earliest right after a leap day, and the time zone shift does the rest.

Which brings in the second mover: your clock. A crossing at 02:17 Universal Time is still the evening of March 19 everywhere in the United States. Same minute, different date. For the full version of this story, with every one of the twelve sign boundaries in 2026 and 2027, see zodiac sign dates.

Born March 20 or 21? How to Settle It

Nobody is two signs. “Cusp” just means you were born within a day of the Sun changing sign, and the Sun was on one side of the line or the other when you arrived. Here is how to find out which.

1. Find your birth time. It is on your birth certificate or in the hospital record. Without it, read both signs honestly; one will sound like your Sun and the other may be your Moon or rising talking.
2. Find your year’s row in the table above, in your time zone. Central is one hour earlier than the Eastern column, Mountain two hours earlier.
3. Compare. Born before the minute shown, you are a Pisces. Born after it, you are an Aries.

A worked example. A baby born in Boston at 10:00 PM on March 19, 2028 is a Pisces, with 17 minutes to go before the 10:17 PM crossing. A baby born at 10:30 PM the same evening is an Aries. Move the first baby to Denver, where 10:00 PM Eastern is 8:00 PM Mountain and the crossing was at 8:17 PM, and nothing changes: still 17 minutes short, still a Pisces. The Sun does not care what your clock says, only where it was.

And if you were born March 21 anywhere in the United States between 1990 and 2030, you can skip the table. You are an Aries. For any year outside the table, the birth chart calculator works in the time zone of the place you were born.

Pisces vs Aries: What Changes on March 20

The last sign of the zodiac hands over to the first, so in our view March 20 is the biggest tonal shift of the whole year. On one side, mutable water. On the other, cardinal fire. These are tendencies, not rules, and your Moon and rising bend every one of them.

Pisces is mutable water ruled by Neptune, with Jupiter as its ruler in the old books. Mutable signs close out a season and adapt; water feels. A Pisces Sun tends to absorb the room before entering it, to think in images and moods rather than lists, and to need real solitude to recover from people, even people it loves. Its gift is empathy and imagination. Its homework is boundaries: knowing which feelings are yours. See how this plays out as a Pisces Moon, a Pisces Venus or Pisces rising.

Aries is cardinal fire ruled by Mars. Cardinal signs open a season and initiate; fire acts. An Aries Sun tends to decide fast, say the thing, and move before the room has finished weighing in. It needs a challenge the way Pisces needs a nap. Its gift is courage and honesty. Its homework is patience, and finishing. The same energy in other parts of the chart: Aries Moon, Aries Venus and Aries rising.

The crossing itself has a name you already know: the spring equinox, the start of astronomical spring in the northern hemisphere. In 2027 the Worm Moon rises less than two days after it, on March 22, which is why that full moon falls in Libra rather than Virgo. For the elements, modes and rulers of all 12 signs, the zodiac signs guide has the full table.

Famous March Birthdays and Their Sun Signs

A few degrees tell the whole story. The Sun moves close to one degree a day, so the degree on a birth chart says how far from the line someone was born.

• Lily Collins, born March 18, 1989: Sun at 27°52’ Pisces. About two degrees short of Aries, which is about two days, and she is a Pisces with no asterisk.
• Scott Eastwood, born March 21, 1986 at 8:20 AM in Monterey, California: Sun at 0°45’ Aries. Three quarters of a degree past the line is roughly 18 hours. He is an Aries by less than a day, which is exactly the kind of birthday this page exists for.
• Reese Witherspoon, born March 22, 1976 in New Orleans: Sun at 2°14’ Aries. Two days past the crossing, an Aries with a Pisces Venus, which is its own story.

Sun degrees are from Astro Charts. Three people, four days apart on the calendar, and the sign flips in the middle.

Sun Sign for March FAQ