1970 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Dog

Chinese year 1970 begins on Friday, February 6, 1970, and ends on Tuesday, January 26, 1971, the day before the Year of the Metal Pig 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 1971.

The year opens with the new moon on Friday, February 6, 1970 at 2:13 a.m. ET, which is 3:13 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 Friday, February 20, 1970. The year's first full moon falls on Saturday, February 21, 1970 at 3:19 a.m. ET. The partial lunar eclipse takes place at this same full moon.

It is year 47 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 庚戌 (gēngxū): the heavenly stem 庚 gives the element and the earthly branch 戌 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1970 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, 1970 at 12:45 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 2 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 5 still has the Earth Rooster sign in the lunar calendar but already the Metal Dog sign in Ba Zi.

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

The Dog is the sign of loyalty and honesty. It is faithful to the people close to it, has a strong sense of justice and stands up for anyone who is being wronged.

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, 1970 (yang) and 1971 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1960–1961, next in 1980–1981.

The Metal Dog is a guardian of principles. Metal strengthens its sense of justice, loyalty and courage, so it defends its values whatever the cost. It is honest and dependable. It judges others as strictly as itself, though, and sees giving ground on principles as weakness.

In 2026, people born in 1970 turn 56 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as an ally's year from the same trine for the Dog. People born in 1970 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2030, when they turn 60 years old.

The Dog comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1970, the Metal Dog, returns every 60 years: in 1910, 1970 and 2030.