1991 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Goat

Chinese year 1991 begins on Friday, February 15, 1991, and ends on Monday, February 3, 1992, 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 1993.

The year opens with the new moon on Thursday, February 14, 1991 at 12:32 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 15, 1:32 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 15.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Friday, March 1, 1991. The year's first full moon falls on Thursday, February 28, 1991 at 1:25 p.m. ET.

It is year 8 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 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 1991 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 Monday, February 4, 1991 at 3:08 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 11 days before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 14 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, 1990 (yang) and 1991 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1980–1981, next in 2000–2001.

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 1991 turn 35 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 1991 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2027, when they turn 36 years old.

The Goat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1991, the Metal Goat, returns every 60 years: in 1931, 1991 and 2051.