2031 Chinese zodiac · date checked against the calendar

2031 Chinese Zodiac: Metal Pig Starts January 23

2031 is the Year of the Metal Pig from January 23, 2031. Under the Lunar New Year rule used here, a Gregorian birthday from January 1 through January 22 is still Metal Dog. The Hong Kong Observatory’s 2031 conversion table places the first day of lunar month one on January 23. The year number alone cannot settle a January birthday.

2031 lunar-year boundary: January 22 remains Metal Dog; January 23 begins Metal Pig. — One day changes the animal. The year-stem element remains Metal on both sides of this boundary.

Check a 2031 birthday

Enter a Gregorian date in 2031. This page checks only the lunar-year animal and element; your date remains in the browser.

This date-only check does not calculate BaZi, an hour animal, local time-zone or true-solar-time adjustments. Some Four Pillars methods choose Start of Spring rather than Lunar New Year for the year pillar.

January 22 or January 23?

Read the row where the Observatory’s January calendar resets to “1st Lunar Month.” That row is January 23. January 22 therefore belongs to the preceding 2030 lunar year, labeled Geng-xu (Dog); January 23 starts Xin-hai (Pig). Both Geng and Xin are Metal year stems, so an animal-only answer changes while the element word does not.

Gregorian birthday	Lunar-year result	Why
January 1, 2031	Metal Dog	The 2030 lunar year continues.
January 22, 2031	Metal Dog	Last day before the new lunar year.
January 23, 2031	Metal Pig	First day of lunar month one.
December 31, 2031	Metal Pig	Still within the 2031 lunar year.

Compared with the 2030 change on February 3, the 2031 change comes eleven calendar days earlier. Reusing last year’s February cutoff would mislabel birthdays from January 23 through February 2.

Why you may see January 22 elsewhere

Some online Pig-year lists print January 22 as the first day. For this page’s rule we use the Observatory’s dated Gregorian–lunar table, which marks lunar month one on January 23. The Smithsonian’s 2031 Pig overview also gives January 23. If a calculator returns Pig for a January 22 birthday, inspect its boundary date and year-start convention before relying on its result.

Source-check method: read January 22 and January 23 in the Hong Kong Observatory 2031 table, then check the year-boundary rule. — Our check is a calendar lookup, not a claim that every zodiac or Four Pillars tradition uses the same boundary.

Quick answers

What Chinese zodiac is 2031?

2031 contains two lunar-year animals: Metal Dog through January 22, then Metal Pig from January 23. For a birthday, check the day and month.

Is January 22, 2031 Pig or Dog?

Metal Dog under the Lunar New Year rule. The Observatory marks January 23 as the first day of the Pig lunar year.

What element is the 2031 Pig?

Metal. The Observatory names the new year Xin-hai; Xin is a Metal stem. The preceding Geng-xu Dog year also has a Metal stem.

Can I use only “2031” in a zodiac calculator?

For a January birthday, no: the exact Gregorian date decides which side of January 23 applies. This checker accepts the full date.

Watch the boundary

Calendar source: Hong Kong Observatory 2031.

Method and sources

This page applies the Lunar New Year date to Gregorian birthdays, following the Observatory’s 2031 calendar. The preceding year is checked against its 2030 calendar. The Observatory’s explanation of year conventions describes why a Start of Spring method can differ. We do not calculate birth-hour or Four Pillars charts.