What Chinese Zodiac Is 2041? Year of the Metal Rooster

2041 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Metal Rooster year on February 1, 2041, and the year ran to January 21, 2042. So a birth date of Feb 1, 2041 or later counts as Metal Rooster, and so do early 2042 birthdays through Jan 21; births in 2041 before Feb 1 still belong to the Metal Monkey. 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: 1981 are Metal Rooster years too. That Friday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Metal Rooster is like

Double Metal gives this Rooster year a reputation for exacting standards and courage. Those born now are pictured as disciplined, candid and fiercely self-reliant. They achieve a great deal. Accepting 'good enough' in some areas, cultivating gentleness through music or animals and talking about feelings help their high standards sit alongside warmth. Beneath the polish, they usually care far more deeply than they let anyone see.

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.

2041 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the year reduces to 7, the number of reflection, analysis and inner work, giving a 7 year a quieter, more searching character. The digits of 2041 add up to 7. The Rooster holds the tenth 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 Metal Monkey and the year after is the Water Dog.

Chinese almanacs name 2041 Xin-You, pairing the Metal stem Xin with the branch You. 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.