The rising trend of astrology, palmistry, tarot card reading, etc., stresses on the fact that almost every individual in this world is keen on knowing what the future has in store for him. In astrology, each individual is assigned a particular zodiac sign depending on his date of birth. If a person is born on April 1, his zodiac sign is Aries, and if he is born on August 1, then he is a Leo. Most people are aware of the date range for their zodiac sign, but don't know how these signs are assigned. Simply put, zodiac date range is the period which begins with the date on which the Sun enters the said constellation and ends with the date when it leaves. It starts with the summer equinox, and Aries being the first sign of the zodiac, is assigned the period between March 21 and April 19. Aries is followed by Taurus from April 21 to May 20, Gemini from May 21 to June 20, and so on ...

Date Range	Constellation	Zodiac Sign
Mar 21 - Apr 19	Aries	Aries
Apr 20 - May 20	Taurus	Taurus
May 21 - Jun 20	Gemini	Gemini
Jun 21 - Jul 22	Cancer	Cancer
Jul 23 - Aug 22	Leo	Leo
Aug 23 - Sep 22	Virgo	Virgo
Sep 23 - Oct 22	Libra	Libra
Oct 23 - Nov 21	Scorpius	Scorpio
Nov 22 - Dec 21	Sagittarius	Sagittarius
Dec 22 - Jan 19	Capricornus	Capricorn
Jan 20 - Feb 18	Aquarius	Aquarius
Feb 19 - Mar 20	Pisces	Pisces

Interestingly, the name of most of the zodiac signs is exactly similar to the constellation in which the Sun is present at that time; the two exceptions being Scorpio (derived from the Scorpius constellation) and Capricorn (derived from the Capricornus constellation). The phrase 'born on the cusp' is used to refer to a person born either on the first or last day of the zodiac range for a particular zodiac sign. Such people normally tend to demonstrate traits of both the zodiac signs. A person born on March 21, for instance, will demonstrate the traits of Aries as well as Pisces. Similarly, a person born on December 21 will have mixed traits of Sagittarius and Capricorn. One should keep in mind that these date ranges are subject to change when the calendar cycle changes as a result of leap years. At times, when you are looking for the range of your zodiac sign, you might come across conflicting dates. This is because while most of the astrologers prefer to stay with the originally fixed dates, some astrologers choose to use the dates for the current year. This, however, does not make any significant difference, as the zodiac range at the time of your birth, which determines your true zodiac sign, is more important than the zodiac range for the current year. If you are not sure about the position of the Sun at the time of your birth, or if you are wondering which of these zodiac ranges you fall in, the ephemeris table, which has the positions of stars and planets over their lifetime listed in it, is the easiest way to find your true zodiac. In the era of computers, you don't have to go through the whole table. Just filling your date and time of birth in the specially designed software will tell you your sign.