The Aries sign guide
- Dates
- March 21 – April 19
- Element
- Fire
- Modality
- Cardinal
- Ruled by
- Mars
In the tropical zodiac, Aries begins at the March equinox, the instant the Sun reaches 0° of ecliptic longitude, so its first day can be timed to the minute. Its symbol is the Ram.
What type of person is an Aries?
Astrology describes Aries as the sign that goes first. Cardinal signs open a season, and Mars, the ruler, is the planet of nerve and drive. Fire adds the enthusiasm. You decide fast and say what you think. A messy start bothers you far less than waiting around for a clean one.
At its best that speed reads as courage. You're often the one who speaks up first in a group or takes the job nobody else wants. Your anger tends to flare and then burn out quickly, and competition gets more effort out of you than routine ever will.
The weak spot is the middle of a project, after the excitement and before the finish, where boredom sets in. At work you do best with room to run your own part and a fresh problem to solve, and being micromanaged is the quickest way to lose an Aries.
In love, Aries tends to make the first move and doesn't play games. You usually respect a partner who says what they want, even when that means disagreeing with you.
In the Tetrabiblos, the second-century astrology text by Claudius Ptolemy, Aries belongs to Mars. It is also where the Sun is exalted, because from the spring equinox "the length of the day and the heating power of his nature begin to increase."
Your rising sign sets the first impression you give, which is one reason some Aries come across as calm. Your Venus sign shapes how you flirt and what attracts you more than your Sun sign does.
Don't quite see yourself in Aries? For most people, the Moon or Rising sits in another sign. Find my Moon and Rising free
When Aries season starts, timed to the minute
Most lists give Aries as March 21 to April 19. The Sun doesn't follow a fixed calendar date, though. It enters Aries at the March equinox, and in US Eastern time that has happened on or before March 20 every year since 1980.
In 2026 and 2027, a March 20 birth in Eastern time can be Pisces or Aries, depending on the time. In 2028 Aries begins the evening before, so all of March 20 is Aries. At the other end, most of April 19, 2028 already belongs to Taurus. UT is Universal Time, the column to convert from for a birth outside the Eastern zone.
We computed these instants from NASA JPL's DE440s ephemeris and checked each one against JPL Horizons. The two agree within 2 seconds. Times are rounded to the nearest minute, so for a birth inside that minute the exact second decides it. There's no blended cusp sign: at any moment the Sun is in one sign or the other.
The Sun into Aries and into Taurus, 2026–2028 (US Eastern, with UT) | Year | Aries begins | Aries ends |
|---|
| 2026 | Mar 20, 10:46 a.m. EDT (14:46 UT) | Apr 19, 9:39 p.m. EDT (Apr 20, 01:39 UT) |
| 2027 | Mar 20, 4:25 p.m. EDT (20:25 UT) | Apr 20, 3:18 a.m. EDT (07:18 UT) |
| 2028 | Mar 19, 10:17 p.m. EDT (Mar 20, 02:17 UT) | Apr 19, 9:09 a.m. EDT (13:09 UT) |
How common is an Aries birthday?
Less common than most. The Social Security Administration counted 62,187,024 US births from 2000 to 2014 (the daily file is published by FiveThirtyEight), and 4,983,157 of them fell between March 21 and April 19. That's 8.01% of births, which puts Aries 11th of the 12 signs. Only Capricorn, at 7.50%, is smaller.
Those 30 days are 8.21% of the calendar, so Aries runs a little under its share: about 11,074 births a day, against 11,350 across the whole dataset. The count goes by calendar date in the usual range, not by each baby's exact Sun position. April 1 was the quietest date in the range. It averaged 10,316 births, about 5% fewer than the same weekday a week or two either side.
Saturn and Neptune in Aries, 2026–2028
Saturn and Neptune both returned to Aries in early 2026, less than three weeks apart, and each had already spent several months there in 2025. Neptune was in Aries from March 30 to October 22, 2025, its first time there since 1861–1875, and came back for the long stay on January 26, 2026 (12:35 p.m. EST, 17:35 UT). It stays until May 2038, dips into Taurus, and returns for one last stretch from October 2038 to March 2039. Saturn spent May 24 to September 1, 2025 in Aries, re-entered on February 13, 2026 (7:12 p.m. EST; February 14, 00:12 UT) and leaves for Taurus on April 12, 2028 (11:40 p.m. EDT; April 13, 03:40 UT). The two met at 0°45′ Aries on February 20, 2026.
Before 2025, Saturn's last pass through Aries was 1996–1999. Ptolemy called Aries Saturn's "depression", the position now known as its fall, and astrologers read the transit as a test of patience for a sign that likes speed. Saturn crosses the early degrees of Aries first and the last ones in 2027 and 2028, which means the year it reaches your own Sun depends on your birthday. The Saturn in Aries guide has the full timetable.