The Khmer calendar and zodiac was adopted after the Chinese calendar and is luni-solar. Most scholars believe the Chinese Zodiac originated sometime before 1100 BC, well before the Historical Buddha's birth in India around 500 BC. The system grew more elaborate and complex over the centuries, but its importance in China ensured its acceptance elsewhere, and thus it greatly influenced the subsequent development of Buddhist traditions throughout Asia.

The Zodiac is part of an elaborate and laborious system based on Chinese astronomy, cosmology, and divination. It was used as a method for counting years, months, days and hours in the Chinese imperial court and civil calendar, and as a system for forecasting one's future and determining one's character. Although replaced in modern times by the Gregorian calendar, the Zodiac is still used today as a popular method of divination in many Asian nations, and Cambodia is no exception

The calendar has a twelve-year cycle and each year is named after an animal forming the 12-animal signs. In Chinese astrology, the zodiac of twelve animal signs represents twelve different types of personality. The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat. To know your animal sign, look at the table below. For example if you are born on February 13, 1966, you are born the year of the Horse.