1991 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Metal Goat (and Early-Year Horse Dates)
By Astrolivo editorial team
In the Chinese lunisolar calendar, most of 1991 is the Year of the Metal Goat (Xin-wei, also translated as Sheep), which runs inclusively from February 15, 1991, to February 3, 1992. If you were born between January 1, 1991, and February 14, 1991, your birthday falls before the Lunar New Year, placing you in the preceding Horse year (Geng-wu, Metal Horse).
1991 Birth-Date Lookup
Use your exact birth date to check which zodiac animal applies under the civil Lunar New Year convention:
Why the Gregorian Year 1991 Is Not Enough
Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar—coordinating lunar months with the solar year—its New Year does not begin on January 1. Anyone born in January or the first two weeks of February 1991 was born before the 1991 Lunar New Year.
Compare two hypothetical births in February 1991:
- Hypothetical Example A: A person born on February 8, 1991, was born one week before the Lunar New Year. Under the civil lunar-year convention, their zodiac sign is the Metal Horse.
- Hypothetical Example B: A person born on February 19, 1991, was born four days after the Lunar New Year transition and belongs to the Metal Goat year.
How the Metal Element and 60-Year Cycle Work
Traditional Chinese timekeeping pairs ten Heavenly Stems with twelve Earthly Branches (represented by the twelve zodiac animals) across a 60-year sexagenary cycle starting with Jia-zi (1984).
For the 1991 lunar year, the stem-branch pairing is Xin-wei:
- Stem (Xin): Maps to the Metal phase in traditional five-phase correspondence (Geng and Xin both correspond to Metal).
- Branch (Wei): Corresponds to the Goat (often translated interchangeably in English as Goat or Sheep for the same branch).
Although the Goat returns every 12 years, those other Goat years carry different stem elements. The specific Metal Goat (Xin-wei) combination repeats only once every 60 years.
How This Differs from Western Sun Signs and Four Pillars (BaZi)
This date lookup reflects a traditional calendar-naming system (documented in Chinese history since the Han period) and differs from other astrological traditions:
- Western Tropical Sun Signs: Western astrology divides the solar year into twelve roughly month-long ecliptic signs, whereas the Chinese zodiac assigns one animal and stem element to an entire 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 the solar term Li Chun (around February 4) and also calculate pillars for the birth month, day, and hour.
Explore all twelve animals and other birth years on the Chinese Zodiac overview.
Methodology and Sources
Exact start and end dates and the Xin-wei (Year of the Goat) header are sourced from the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) civil Gregorian-lunar conversion tables (T1991e.txt and T1992e.txt) and HKO Stems and Branches documentation. The cultural five-phase stem mapping (Xin = Metal) follows standard traditional correspondence (documented in Yoo & Yoon, 2019, JKMC, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017). Calendar and historical context (including the Goat/Sheep English naming convention for the eighth branch) draws on the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich.