What Chinese Zodiac Is 1991? Year of the Metal Goat

1991 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Metal Goat year on February 15, 1991, and the year ran to February 3, 1992. So a birth date of Feb 15, 1991 or later counts as Metal Goat, and so do early 1992 birthdays through Feb 3; births in 1991 before Feb 15 still belong to the Metal Horse. 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: 1931 are Metal Goat years too. That Friday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Metal Goat is like

People born in a Metal Goat year are often portrayed as creative perfectionists with strong inner convictions. Earth generating Metal is read as softness giving rise to structure, so the usual gentle Goat acquires discipline and a keen eye for quality. They are fierce on behalf of loved ones. Readings suggest that sharing work before it feels flawless helps their talent find its audience.

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.

1991 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the year's digits reduce to 2, the number of partnership, patience and diplomacy, and a 2 year is traditionally read as one for cooperation rather than solo pushes. The digits of 1991 add up to 20, which reduces to 2. The Goat holds the eighth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Earth. Set beside the year's Metal stem, earth generates Metal, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Metal Horse and the year after is the Water Monkey.

Chinese almanacs name 1991 Xin-Wei, pairing the Metal stem Xin with the branch Wei. Both are Yin, 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.