What Chinese Zodiac Is 2000? Year of the Metal Dragon

2000 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Metal Dragon year on February 5, 2000, and the year ran to January 23, 2001. So a birth date of Feb 5, 2000 or later counts as Metal Dragon, and so do early 2001 birthdays through Jan 23; births in 2000 before Feb 5 still belong to the Earth Rabbit. 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: 1940 are Metal Dragon years too. That Saturday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Metal Dragon is like

In a Metal Dragon year, the Dragon's vitality takes on a hard, bright edge. Classical readings picture people born now as decisive, honest and fearless, with integrity as a defining trait. Earth feeding Metal can drain them if they never rest. Accepting help, reflecting on where their drive is pointed and staying curious about other views are the usual suggestions.

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.

2000 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 2000 add up to 2. The Dragon holds the fifth 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 Earth Rabbit and the year after is the Metal Snake.

Chinese almanacs name 2000 Geng-Chen, pairing the Metal stem Geng with the branch Chen. 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.