2020 Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Rat

Chinese year 2020 begins on Saturday, January 25, 2020, and ends on Thursday, February 11, 2021, 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 2023. 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 Friday, January 24, 2020 at 4:42 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already January 25, 5:42 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on January 25.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Saturday, February 8, 2020. The year's first full moon falls on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 2:33 a.m. ET.

It is year 37 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1984 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 2020 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 Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 4:03 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 10 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 25 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, 2020 (yang) and 2021 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 2010–2011, next in 2030–2031.

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 2020 turn 6 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 2020 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2032, when they turn 12 years old.

The Rat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 2020, the Metal Rat, returns every 60 years: in 1960, 2020 and 2080.