The exact dates of the 1960 lunar year
The Metal Rat year ran from January 28, 1960 to February 14, 1961. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap sixth month was inserted: 1960 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1960 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1959 one, January 28, 1960 against February 8, 1959. Why the 1960 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Metal Rat pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1960 is Geng and the branch is the Rat, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1960 that branch is taken to mean someone resourceful and quick to spot an opening, with a strong instinct for what is scarce. Metal, the element attached to 1960, adds definition, resolve and a preference for clean edges.
1960 is a yang year, the outward half of the Metal pair: 1961 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1960 is described as the rat temperament working through definition.
Born in January or early February 1960
From 1 January 1960 to January 27, 1960 the animal in force was still the Pig, not the Rat — 27 days of 1960 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1960 is a Pig.
The first Rat of 1960 is anyone born on January 28, 1960 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 14, 1961. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 28, 1960 is at the early end.
Where 1960 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1960 is position 37 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Geng stem against the Rat branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Metal Rat year was 1900 and the next is 2020.
Someone born in 1900 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1960, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1960 meets the pairing again in 2020.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Rat of 1960 is grouped with the Dragon and the Monkey, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1956 and 1964. Its opposition is the Horse, six years on from 1960 in 1966.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1960 was measured to produce them; 1960 stands four years from 1956 and six from 1966, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1960
Because the 1960 lunar year opened on January 28, 1960, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 14, 1961, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1960 stays the Rat.
Handbooks equate the Rat of 1960 with Sagittarius, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1960 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1960 Metal Rat as a year-long version of Sagittarius flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1960 Chinese new year start?
January 28, 1960, and the year ran on to February 14, 1961 — 384 days.
What animal is 1960?
The Rat, in its Metal form, from January 28, 1960 onward; a birth earlier in 1960 is a Pig.
Was 1960 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap sixth month made 1960 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1960 — which animal am I?
The Pig, unless you were born on January 28, 1960 or later, which is when the 1960 year began.