The exact dates of the 1930 lunar year
The Metal Horse year ran from January 30, 1930 to February 16, 1931. Those 383 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap sixth month was inserted: 1930 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1930 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1929 one, January 30, 1930 against February 10, 1929. Why the 1930 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Metal Horse pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1930 is Geng and the branch is the Horse, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1930 that branch is taken to mean someone restless and independent, poor at being managed and good at moving. Metal, the element attached to 1930, adds definition, resolve and a preference for clean edges.
1930 is a yang year, the outward half of the Metal pair: 1931 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1930 is described as the horse temperament working through definition.
Born in January or early February 1930
From 1 January 1930 to January 29, 1930 the animal in force was still the Snake, not the Horse — 29 days of 1930 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1930 is a Snake.
The first Horse of 1930 is anyone born on January 30, 1930 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 16, 1931. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 30, 1930 is at the early end.
Where 1930 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1930 is position 7 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Geng stem against the Horse branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Metal Horse year was 1870 and the next is 1990.
Someone born in 1870 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1930, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1930 meets the pairing again in 1990.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Horse of 1930 is grouped with the Tiger and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1926 and 1934. Its opposition is the Rat, six years on from 1930 in 1936.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1930 was measured to produce them; 1930 stands four years from 1926 and six from 1936, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1930
Because the 1930 lunar year opened on January 30, 1930, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 16, 1931, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1930 stays the Horse.
Handbooks equate the Horse of 1930 with Gemini, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1930 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1930 Metal Horse as a year-long version of Gemini flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1930 Chinese new year start?
January 30, 1930, and the year ran on to February 16, 1931 — 383 days.
What animal is 1930?
The Horse, in its Metal form, from January 30, 1930 onward; a birth earlier in 1930 is a Snake.
Was 1930 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap sixth month made 1930 thirteen months and 383 days long.
I was born in January 1930 — which animal am I?
The Snake, unless you were born on January 30, 1930 or later, which is when the 1930 year began.