The exact dates of the 1990 lunar year
The Metal Horse year ran from January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991. Those 384 days are longer than a Gregorian year because a leap fifth month was inserted: 1990 carried thirteen lunar months rather than twelve, the same month number falling twice.
The 1990 new year fell 10 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1989 one, January 27, 1990 against February 6, 1989. Why the 1990 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 1990 is Geng and the branch is the Horse, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1990 that branch is taken to mean someone restless and independent, poor at being managed and good at moving. Metal, the element attached to 1990, adds definition, resolve and a preference for clean edges.
1990 is a yang year, the outward half of the Metal pair: 1991 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1990 is described as the horse temperament working through definition.
Born in January or early February 1990
From 1 January 1990 to January 26, 1990 the animal in force was still the Snake, not the Horse — 26 days of 1990 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1990 is a Snake.
The first Horse of 1990 is anyone born on January 27, 1990 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 14, 1991. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, January 27, 1990 is at the early end.
Where 1990 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1990 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 1930 and the next is 2050.
Someone born in 1930 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1990, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1990 meets the pairing again in 2050.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Horse of 1990 is grouped with the Tiger and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1986 and 1994. Its opposition is the Rat, six years on from 1990 in 1996.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1990 was measured to produce them; 1990 stands four years from 1986 and six from 1996, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1990
Because the 1990 lunar year opened on January 27, 1990, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 14, 1991, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1990 stays the Horse.
Handbooks equate the Horse of 1990 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 1990 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1990 Metal Horse as a year-long version of Gemini flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1990 Chinese new year start?
January 27, 1990, and the year ran on to February 14, 1991 — 384 days.
What animal is 1990?
The Horse, in its Metal form, from January 27, 1990 onward; a birth earlier in 1990 is a Snake.
Was 1990 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
Yes — a leap fifth month made 1990 thirteen months and 384 days long.
I was born in January 1990 — which animal am I?
The Snake, unless you were born on January 27, 1990 or later, which is when the 1990 year began.