The exact dates of the 1961 lunar year
The Metal Ox year ran from February 15, 1961 to February 4, 1962. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1961, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1961 new year fell 18 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1960 one, February 15, 1961 against January 28, 1960. Why the 1961 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Metal Ox pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1961 is Xin and the branch is the Ox, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1961 that branch is taken to mean someone patient and immovable, doing the work whether or not anyone is counting it. Metal, the element attached to 1961, adds definition, resolve and a preference for clean edges.
1961 is a yin year, the inward half of the Metal pair: 1960 carries the same element in its yang form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1961 is described as the ox temperament working through definition.
Born in January or early February 1961
From 1 January 1961 to February 14, 1961 the animal in force was still the Rat, not the Ox — 45 days of 1961 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1961 is a Rat.
The first Ox of 1961 is anyone born on February 15, 1961 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 4, 1962. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 15, 1961 is at the later end.
Where 1961 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1961 is position 38 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Xin stem against the Ox branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Metal Ox year was 1901 and the next is 2021.
Someone born in 1901 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1961, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1961 meets the pairing again in 2021.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Ox of 1961 is grouped with the Snake and the Rooster, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1957 and 1965. Its opposition is the Goat, six years on from 1961 in 1967.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1961 was measured to produce them; 1961 stands four years from 1957 and six from 1967, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1961
Because the 1961 lunar year opened on February 15, 1961, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 4, 1962, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1961 stays the Ox.
Handbooks equate the Ox of 1961 with Capricorn, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1961 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1961 Metal Ox as a year-long version of Capricorn flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1961 Chinese new year start?
February 15, 1961, and the year ran on to February 4, 1962 — 355 days.
What animal is 1961?
The Ox, in its Metal form, from February 15, 1961 onward; a birth earlier in 1961 is a Rat.
Was 1961 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1961 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1961 — which animal am I?
The Rat, unless you were born on February 15, 1961 or later, which is when the 1961 year began.