1960 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Rat

Chinese year 1960 begins on Thursday, January 28, 1960, and ends on Tuesday, February 14, 1961, the day before the Year of the Metal Ox begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1963. The Chinese calendar adds the extra month roughly every two or three years so that it doesn't drift away from the seasons.

The year opens with the new moon on Thursday, January 28, 1960 at 1:15 a.m. ET, which is 2:15 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 Thursday, February 11, 1960. The year's first full moon falls on Friday, February 12, 1960 at 12:24 p.m. ET.

It is year 37 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 庚子 (gēngzǐ): the heavenly stem 庚 gives the element and the earthly branch 子 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1960 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 Thursday, February 4, 1960 at 2:23 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 7 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 28 and that moment already has the Metal Rat sign in the lunar calendar but still the Earth Pig sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Rat opens the twelve-year cycle, and legend says it won the Great Race by cunning: it rode across the river on the Ox's back and jumped off just before the finish line. The sign is known for intelligence, resourcefulness and quick reflexes.

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, 1960 (yang) and 1961 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1950–1951, next in 1970–1971.

Metal sharpens the Rat's ambition and its sense for money. The Metal Rat knows exactly what it wants and goes after it steadily, and in business it is hard to outsmart. It stays unconditionally loyal to the people close to it, while keeping the rest of the world at arm's length. When things slip out of its control, it can turn suspicious and stubborn.

In 2026, people born in 1960 turn 66 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as an opposite sign's year for the Rat. People born in 1960 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2032, when they turn 72 years old.

The Rat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1960, the Metal Rat, returns every 60 years: in 1900, 1960 and 2020.