The exact dates of the 1971 lunar year
The Metal Pig year ran from January 27, 1971 to February 14, 1972. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap fifth month was inserted: 1971 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1971 new year fell 10 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1970 one, January 27, 1971 against February 6, 1970. Why the 1971 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Metal Pig pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1971 is Xin and the branch is the Pig, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1971 that branch is taken to mean someone generous and unguarded, taking people at their word for longer than is wise. Metal, the element attached to 1971, adds definition, resolve and a preference for clean edges.
1971 is a yin year, the inward half of the Metal pair: 1970 carries the same element in its yang form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1971 is described as the pig temperament working through definition.
Born in January or early February 1971
From 1 January 1971 to January 26, 1971 the animal in force was still the Dog, not the Pig — 26 days of 1971 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1971 is a Dog.
The first Pig of 1971 is anyone born on January 27, 1971 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 14, 1972. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 27, 1971 is at the early end.
Where 1971 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1971 is position 48 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Xin stem against the Pig branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Metal Pig year was 1911 and the next is 2031.
Someone born in 1911 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1971, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1971 meets the pairing again in 2031.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Pig of 1971 is grouped with the Rabbit and the Goat, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1967 and 1975. Its opposition is the Snake, six years on from 1971 in 1977.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1971 was measured to produce them; 1971 stands four years from 1967 and six from 1977, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1971
Because the 1971 lunar year opened on January 27, 1971, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 14, 1972, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1971 stays the Pig.
Handbooks equate the Pig of 1971 with Scorpio, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1971 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1971 Metal Pig as a year-long version of Scorpio flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1971 Chinese new year start?
January 27, 1971, and the year ran on to February 14, 1972 — 384 days.
What animal is 1971?
The Pig, in its Metal form, from January 27, 1971 onward; a birth earlier in 1971 is a Dog.
Was 1971 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap fifth month made 1971 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1971 — which animal am I?
The Dog, unless you were born on January 27, 1971 or later, which is when the 1971 year began.