December 16 Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius
The short answer
People born on December 16 are Sagittarius. On this date the Sun sits between 23.2° Sagittarius and 25.5° Sagittarius in every year from 1950 to 2025, in the third decan of Sagittarius.
December 16 at a glance
| Zodiac sign | Sagittarius (November 22 to December 21) |
|---|---|
| Sun position, 1950 to 2025 | 23.2° Sagittarius to 25.5° Sagittarius (usually 24.3° Sagittarius at noon UTC) |
| Decan | third decan of Sagittarius: Leo (triplicity), Saturn (Chaldean), Ten of Wands (Golden Dawn) |
| Element | Fire |
| Modality | Mutable |
| Ruling planet | Jupiter |
| Nearest sign change | About 4.5 days away |
What a December 16 birthday means
On December 16 the Sun sits between 23.2° Sagittarius and 25.5° Sagittarius in every year from 1950 to 2025, counting every hour of the day in UTC. Its usual noon position is 24.3° Sagittarius.
That places December 16 in the third decan of Sagittarius. The modern triplicity system gives this decan to Leo, the older Chaldean order gives it to Saturn, and the Golden Dawn tradition pairs it with the Ten of Wands.
Sagittarius is a fire sign of the mutable modality, ruled by Jupiter. Fire signs act first and warm up the room; they need something to aim at. Mutable signs adapt: each one closes a season and gets ready for the next.
December 16 is about 5 days from the nearest sign change, so the Sun is in Sagittarius on this date in every year charted.
Where these figures come from
The Sun's position was charted at 12:00 UTC on every day from 1950 to 2025, and the start and end of each date were placed on the straight line between neighbouring days, which is exact to a small fraction of a degree. The range covers every hour of December 16 in UTC across all 76 years; someone born far from UTC can sit up to about half a degree beyond it. Decans follow two traditional systems: the triplicity system, which gives each third of a sign to the three signs of its element in turn, and the older Chaldean order of faces, which runs through the seven classical planets from Mars at the start of Aries.
Other birthdays
December: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Born on December 16? Vera reads the whole chart, not just the Sun.
Your Sun sign is one line of your chart. Vera casts the rest from your birth time and place, then answers what you actually want to know.