1990 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Metal Horse (and Early-Year Snake Dates)
By Astrolivo editorial team
In the Chinese lunisolar calendar, most of 1990 is the Year of the Metal Horse (Geng-wu), which runs inclusively from January 27, 1990, to February 14, 1991. However, if you were born between January 1, 1990, and January 26, 1990, your birth date falls before the Lunar New Year, placing you in the preceding Snake year (Ji-si, Earth Snake).
1990 Birth-Date Lookup
Match your exact birth date to the inclusive civil Lunar New Year boundaries below:
Why the Gregorian Year 1990 Is Not Enough
Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar—combining lunar phase cycles with the solar year—Lunar New Year moves between late January and mid-February on the civil calendar. Checking only the Gregorian year 1990 will misclassify anyone born during the first 26 days of January.
Consider two hypothetical births in January 1990:
- Hypothetical Example A: A person born on January 15, 1990, was born twelve days before the Lunar New Year. In the civil lunar-year lookup, their zodiac sign is the Earth Snake, not the Horse.
- Hypothetical Example B: A person born on January 29, 1990, was born two days after the Lunar New Year transition and belongs to the Metal Horse year.
How the Metal Element and 60-Year Cycle Work
Traditional Chinese calendar tables combine ten Heavenly Stems with twelve Earthly Branches (associated with the twelve zodiac animals) to form a repeating 60-year cycle anchored at Jia-zi (1984).
In 1990, the stem-branch designation is Geng-wu:
- Stem (Geng): Corresponds to the Metal phase in traditional five-phase mapping (Geng and Xin both map to Metal).
- Branch (Wu): Corresponds to the Horse.
While the Horse returns every 12 years, those other Horse years are paired with different stems and elements. The exact Metal Horse (Geng-wu) designation repeats only once every 60 years.
How This Differs from Western Sun Signs and Four Pillars (BaZi)
This lookup is a calendar-year naming convention (documented in Chinese history since the Han dynasty) and differs from other astrological systems:
- Western Tropical Sun Signs: Western astrology divides the solar year into twelve roughly month-long signs along the tropical ecliptic, whereas the Chinese zodiac assigns one animal and stem element to a full lunisolar year.
- Four Pillars (BaZi): This page uses the civil Lunar New Year boundary. Traditional Four Pillars (BaZi) calculations instead shift the year pillar at Li Chun (the solar term for the start of spring, typically around February 4) and also compute month, day, and hour pillars.
For the full twelve-animal sequence and other birth years, visit the Chinese Zodiac overview.
Methodology and Sources
Inclusive date boundaries and the Geng-wu year header are taken from the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) civil Gregorian-lunar conversion tables (T1990e.txt and T1991e.txt) and HKO Stems and Branches documentation. The cultural five-phase stem mapping (Geng = Metal) follows standard traditional correspondence (documented in Yoo & Yoon, 2019, JKMC, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017). Calendar and historical context draws on the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich.