What Chinese Zodiac Is 1990? Year of the Metal Horse

1990 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Metal Horse year on January 27, 1990, and the year ran to February 14, 1991. So a birth date of Jan 27, 1990 or later counts as Metal Horse, and so do early 1991 birthdays through Feb 14; births in 1990 before Jan 27 still belong to the Earth Snake. That moving boundary comes from the lunisolar calendar, in which the new year starts with the second new moon after the winter solstice in most years, so its Gregorian date shifts by up to a month from one year to the next. Look sixty years either side and the pairing repeats: 1930 are Metal Horse years too. That Saturday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Metal Horse is like

In a Metal Horse year, the Horse's love of freedom is said to be hardened into resolve. Since Fire controls Metal, the animal is busy shaping its stem, and classical descriptions picture a quick, determined, independent character who thrives on difficult goals. These people can lead with real conviction. Their growth often lies in learning that some limits are tools, not cages.

Belonging to the west and to the clear, cool air of autumn, Metal adds edge, resolve and structure to any sign it colours. Classical texts connect it with righteousness, strength of will and the ability to see a situation without sentiment. A Metal stem often makes an animal more ambitious, more organised and more self-contained than usual. People born in Metal years are frequently described as loyal to their word and tireless once committed. The caution most readings add is a hardness that can isolate them, along with perfectionism and a reluctance to admit doubt or ask for help.

1990 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the year's digits reduce to 1, the number of beginnings, initiative and independence, so numerologists describe a 1 year as one that rewards starting things. The digits of 1990 add up to 19, which reduces to 1. The Horse holds the seventh place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Fire. Set beside the year's Metal stem, fire controls Metal, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Earth Snake and the year after is the Metal Goat.

Chinese almanacs name 1990 Geng-Wu, pairing the Metal stem Geng with the branch Wu. Both are Yang, as stem and branch always share a polarity, so of the hundred and twenty possible pairings only sixty ever occur, and each one names a single year in every cycle.