December 20 Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius
The short answer
People born on December 20 are Sagittarius. On this date the Sun sits between 27.2° Sagittarius and 29.6° Sagittarius in every year from 1950 to 2025, in the third decan of Sagittarius.
December 20 at a glance
| Zodiac sign | Sagittarius (November 22 to December 21) |
|---|---|
| Sun position, 1950 to 2025 | 27.2° Sagittarius to 29.6° Sagittarius (usually 28.4° 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 0.4 days away |
What a December 20 birthday means
On December 20 the Sun sits between 27.2° Sagittarius and 29.6° Sagittarius in every year from 1950 to 2025, counting every hour of the day in UTC. Its usual noon position is 28.4° Sagittarius.
That places December 20 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 20 sits close to the boundary between Sagittarius and Capricorn, about 0.4 days away, but in every year charted the Sun was in Sagittarius for the whole of this date.
When the Sun changes sign around December 20
Across 1950 to 2025, the Sun entered Capricorn on these dates (UTC):
- December 21: 36 years
- December 22: 40 years
If you were born near the change, your birth year and time decide your sign: cast your free birth chart to see it.
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 20 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 20? 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.