1961 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Ox

Chinese year 1961 begins on Wednesday, February 15, 1961, and ends on Sunday, February 4, 1962, the day before the Year of the Water Tiger 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 1963.

The year opens with the new moon on Wednesday, February 15, 1961 at 3:10 a.m. ET, which is 4:10 p.m. China Standard Time, so the date is the same in New York and in Beijing. The total solar eclipse takes place at this same new moon.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Wednesday, March 1, 1961. The year's first full moon falls on Thursday, March 2, 1961 at 8:35 a.m. ET. The partial lunar eclipse takes place at this same full moon.

It is year 38 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 辛丑 (xīnchǒu): the heavenly stem 辛 gives the element and the earthly branch 丑 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1961 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 Friday, February 3, 1961 at 8:22 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 12 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 14 still has the Metal Rat sign in the lunar calendar but already the Metal Ox sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Ox, called the Buffalo in some sources, is the sign of perseverance. It works patiently, keeps its word and doesn't quit halfway, even when everyone else gave up long ago.

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.

The Metal Ox is the toughest Ox of all. It has iron discipline and clear principles and rarely strays from its chosen path, which makes it effective like few others. Its loyalty needs no words. Still, the people close to it would sometimes like to hear more about what it feels, because Metal makes it keep its emotions under lock and key.

In 2026, people born in 1961 turn 65 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a year with no special tie for the Ox. People born in 1961 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2033, when they turn 72 years old.

The Ox comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1961, the Metal Ox, returns every 60 years: in 1901, 1961 and 2021.