The exact dates of the 1980 lunar year
The Metal Monkey year ran from February 16, 1980 to February 4, 1981. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1980, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1980 new year fell 19 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1979 one, February 16, 1980 against January 28, 1979. Why the 1980 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Metal Monkey pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1980 is Geng and the branch is the Monkey, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1980 that branch is taken to mean someone inventive and quick, solving things sideways and getting bored fast. Metal, the element attached to 1980, adds definition, resolve and a preference for clean edges.
1980 is a yang year, the outward half of the Metal pair: 1981 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1980 is described as the monkey temperament working through definition.
Born in January or early February 1980
From 1 January 1980 to February 15, 1980 the animal in force was still the Goat, not the Monkey — 46 days of 1980 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1980 is a Goat.
The first Monkey of 1980 is anyone born on February 16, 1980 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 4, 1981. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 16, 1980 is at the later end.
Where 1980 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1980 is position 57 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Geng stem against the Monkey branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Metal Monkey year was 1920 and the next is 2040.
Someone born in 1920 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1980, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1980 meets the pairing again in 2040.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Monkey of 1980 is grouped with the Rat and the Dragon, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1976 and 1984. Its opposition is the Tiger, six years on from 1980 in 1986.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1980 was measured to produce them; 1980 stands four years from 1976 and six from 1986, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1980
Because the 1980 lunar year opened on February 16, 1980, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 4, 1981, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1980 stays the Monkey.
Handbooks equate the Monkey of 1980 with Leo, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1980 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1980 Metal Monkey as a year-long version of Leo flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1980 Chinese new year start?
February 16, 1980, and the year ran on to February 4, 1981 — 355 days.
What animal is 1980?
The Monkey, in its Metal form, from February 16, 1980 onward; a birth earlier in 1980 is a Goat.
Was 1980 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1980 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1980 — which animal am I?
The Goat, unless you were born on February 16, 1980 or later, which is when the 1980 year began.