1951 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Rabbit

Chinese year 1951 begins on Tuesday, February 6, 1951, and ends on Saturday, January 26, 1952, the day before the Year of the Water Dragon begins. It has 355 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 1952.

The year opens with the new moon on Tuesday, February 6, 1951 at 2:54 a.m. ET, which is 3:54 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, February 20, 1951. The year's first full moon falls on Wednesday, February 21, 1951 at 4:12 p.m. ET.

It is year 28 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 辛卯 (xīnmǎo): the heavenly stem 辛 gives the element and the earthly branch 卯 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1951 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 Sunday, February 4, 1951 at 10:13 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 2 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 5 still has the Metal Tiger sign in the lunar calendar but already the Metal Rabbit sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Rabbit is the sign of gentleness and finesse. It has good taste, tact and a gift for smoothing over disputes, so it feels best wherever there is harmony.

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, 1950 (yang) and 1951 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1940–1941, next in 1960–1961.

Metal gives the Rabbit a backbone. The Metal Rabbit is more decisive and ambitious than its relatives, sets high standards for itself and cares about quality in everything it does. It has refined taste and is very loyal. It lets new people into its world slowly and carefully.

In 2026, people born in 1951 turn 75 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a year with no special tie for the Rabbit. People born in 1951 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2035, when they turn 84 years old.

The Rabbit comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1951, the Metal Rabbit, returns every 60 years: in 1891, 1951 and 2011.