What Chinese Zodiac Is 2040? Year of the Metal Monkey

2040 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Metal Monkey year on February 12, 2040, and the year ran to January 31, 2041. So a birth date of Feb 12, 2040 or later counts as Metal Monkey, and so do early 2041 birthdays through Jan 31; births in 2040 before Feb 12 still belong to the Earth Goat. 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: 1980 are Metal Monkey years too. That Sunday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Metal Monkey is like

Double Metal gives this Monkey year a reputation for brilliance and independence. Those born now are pictured as ambitious, capable and competitive, at their best with challenging work. Small acts of vulnerability, spontaneous adventures and guarding rest help their competence come with warmth, deepening the trust others place in them. Their humour, when they let it out, is quick, sharp and often very funny.

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.

2040 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the year's digits come to 6, linked with home, care and responsibility, so a 6 year is read as one centred on family and commitments. The digits of 2040 add up to 6. The Monkey holds the ninth place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Metal. Set beside the year's Metal stem, metal year element matches the fixed element, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Earth Goat and the year after is the Metal Rooster.

Chinese almanacs name 2040 Geng-Shen, pairing the Metal stem Geng with the branch Shen. 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.