1931 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Goat

Chinese year 1931 begins on Tuesday, February 17, 1931, and ends on Friday, February 5, 1932, the day before the Year of the Water Monkey begins. It has 354 days, or 12 lunar months: each month starts on a new moon, so it is 29 or 30 days long. The next leap year, with a thirteenth month, comes in 1933.

The year opens with the new moon on Tuesday, February 17, 1931 at 8:11 a.m. ET, which is 9:11 p.m. China Standard Time, so the date is the same in New York and in Beijing.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Tuesday, March 3, 1931. The year's first full moon falls on Wednesday, March 4, 1931 at 5:36 a.m. ET.

It is year 8 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 辛未 (xīnwèi): the heavenly stem 辛 gives the element and the earthly branch 未 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1931 begins not at the lunar New Year but at the moment of lìchūn (立春, “start of spring”), when the Sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude: on Wednesday, February 4, 1931 at 1:40 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 13 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 16 still has the Metal Horse sign in the lunar calendar but already the Metal Goat sign in Ba Zi.

This page and the calculator give your sign by the lunar calendar.

The Goat, also called the Sheep or the Ram because its Chinese name, 羊 (yáng), means both goat and sheep, is the sign of sensitivity and imagination. It is gentle and empathetic, with the soul of an artist.

Determination, principles and a clear goal. Metal tempers a sign: it adds willpower, but can make it unbending.

The Metal element covers two years in a row, 1930 (yang) and 1931 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1920–1921, next in 1940–1941.

Metal makes the Goat more resilient. The Metal Goat is more decisive than other Goats, copes better with criticism and hard decisions, and sets high standards for itself. It has refined taste and clear principles. Under the tougher shell, though, it stays very sensitive and hides its hurts deeper than it shows.

In 2026, people born in 1931 turn 95 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a secret friend's year for the Goat. People born in 1931 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2027, when they turn 96 years old.

The Goat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1931, the Metal Goat, returns every 60 years: in 1871, 1931 and 1991.