What Chinese Zodiac Is 2011? Year of the Metal Rabbit

2011 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Metal Rabbit year on February 3, 2011, and the year ran to January 22, 2012. So a birth date of Feb 3, 2011 or later counts as Metal Rabbit, and so do early 2012 birthdays through Jan 22; births in 2011 before Feb 3 still belong to the Metal Tiger. 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: 1951 are Metal Rabbit years too. That Thursday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Metal Rabbit is like

A Rabbit with steel in its spine is the traditional image of this year. Because Metal controls Wood, readings describe tact sharpened into resolve and refinement turned towards high-quality work. People born now can seem cool while actually anxious. Explaining their reasoning, and deciding which tasks truly need perfection, helps their kindness show alongside their competence. Colleagues often value their eye for quality above everything.

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.

2011 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the digits reduce to 4, the number of structure, effort and foundations, which gives a 4 year a reputation for steady, practical work. The digits of 2011 add up to 4. The Rabbit holds the fourth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Wood. Set beside the year's Metal stem, metal controls Wood, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Metal Tiger and the year after is the Water Dragon.

Chinese almanacs name 2011 Xin-Mao, pairing the Metal stem Xin with the branch Mao. 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.