What animal is the 1950 Chinese zodiac?
Metal Tiger names the lunar year that starts February 17, 1950. Someone born earlier in that Gregorian year is Earth Ox under this page's rule.
1950 Chinese zodiac · check the actual birthday
1950 Chinese Zodiac: Earth Ox or Metal Tiger?
A 1950 birthday is Earth Ox from January 1 through February 16, or Metal Tiger from February 17 through December 31. Under the Lunar New Year rule used by this site, the Tiger year begins on February 17, 1950. The Gregorian year number alone misses 47 birthdays before that boundary. The Hong Kong Observatory 1950 calendar supplies the date and names the new year Geng-yin.
Check a birth date in 1950
Choose a Gregorian birthday from 1950. The answer runs in your browser; the date is not sent to us. This checks the year animal and year-stem element only.
Use the main calculator for a birthday outside 1950. Neither tool calculates a Four Pillars chart, an hour animal, historical daylight-saving adjustments or true solar time.
The four dates that settle the boundary
The 1949 lunar year continues into 1950. In the Observatory's 1950 table, February 16 is the final date before its “1st Lunar Month” row resets on February 17. Its 1949 and 1950 tables name the consecutive years Ji-chou (Ox) and Geng-yin (Tiger).
| Gregorian birthday | Result here | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| January 1, 1950 | Earth Ox | Still in the 1949 lunar year |
| February 16, 1950 | Earth Ox | Last day before the 1950 New Year |
| February 17, 1950 | Metal Tiger | First day of the new lunar year |
| December 31, 1950 | Metal Tiger | Still within the 1950 lunar year |
There are 47 calendar days from January 1 through February 16. A plain “1950 = Tiger” chart silently assigns the wrong animal to all of them under this rule. The preceding Ox label comes from the 1949 Observatory calendar; the stem-to-element labels follow the site's year-element chart.
Why 1950 and 2010 share a label, but not a birthday cutoff
The Observatory names both 1950 and 2010 Geng-yin. That is why they are both called Metal Tiger years, 60 years apart. Their Lunar New Year dates differ: February 17 in 1950 and February 14 in 2010. Reusing a 2010 cutoff for a 1950 birthday would mislabel February 14–16, 1950. Check the year-specific calendar, even when the animal and element are identical.
The 1950 Metal Tiger year continues beyond December 31: the 1951 calendar begins the following Rabbit year on February 6, 1951. Thus January 1–February 5, 1951 are still in the 1950 Tiger lunar year. From February 17, 1950 to February 5, 1951 inclusive is 354 days; that length is calculated from the two published boundaries, not a personality trait.
Questions about the 1950 sign
Was February 16, 1950 Ox or Tiger?
Earth Ox. The Observatory places the 1950 Lunar New Year on February 17.
What element is a 1950 Tiger?
Metal. The year name Geng-yin combines a Metal stem with the Tiger branch. It does not describe a person's full chart or temperament.
Is a January 1951 birthday a Tiger?
Yes, under the Lunar New Year rule: the 1950 Metal Tiger year lasts through February 5, 1951. The Rabbit year starts February 6.
Why might a BaZi site give a different result in early February?
Some Four Pillars methods use the Start of Spring for their year pillar. This date-only page uses Lunar New Year for the popular year animal and does not compute a BaZi chart.
Watch the 1950 date check
Watch this explanation on the Chinese Sign Finder YouTube channel.
Method, sources and limits
The primary record is the Hong Kong Observatory's Gregorian–lunar conversion table for 1950. Its 1949, 1951 and 2010 tables let us check the adjacent labels, end date and 60-year comparison. Our 47-day count, four-date answer table, 354-day interval, diagrams and date checker are independent calculations from those sources. No rival text has been reused.
A year animal is a calendar classification in a cultural tradition. This page does not claim to predict personality, health or fortune. For a 384-day Tiger year with a leap lunar month, see our 1938 date guide. For all Tiger-year date ranges use the Tiger reference; for sign meanings use the separate meaning guide.