2011 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Rabbit

Chinese year 2011 begins on Thursday, February 3, 2011, and ends on Sunday, January 22, 2012, the day before the Year of the Water Dragon 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 2012.

The year opens with the new moon on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:31 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 3, 10:31 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 3.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Thursday, February 17, 2011. The year's first full moon falls on Friday, February 18, 2011 at 3:36 a.m. ET.

It is year 28 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 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 2011 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 3, 2011 at 11:32 p.m. Eastern Time. That is the same day Chinese New Year begins, so both calendars change sign on February 3.

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, 2010 (yang) and 2011 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 2000–2001, next in 2020–2021.

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 2011 turn 15 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 2011 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2035, when they turn 24 years old.

The Rabbit comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 2011, the Metal Rabbit, returns every 60 years: in 1951, 2011 and 2071.